We all have our little  routines with which to start the day and similar to millions of others in the UK, I start with a cup of tea. But I take the opportunity to ask my ‘Smart Speaker’ about the weather forecast for the day and today the weather is predicted to have a high of about 26° which is certainly quite tolerable. We now have an authoritative study of the number of deaths directly attributable to the heatwaves experienced in both May and June and the quoted figure is 2,700 with 40% calculated to be due to climate-change increases. We could perhaps project  this figure forwards to include July as we are only half way through the month and that raise the figure to 4.000 deaths. This sounds dramatic and is calculated to exceed the number of excess deaths that occur during the winter months and is a sombre reminder that climate change can no longer be denied. Incidentally, I would like  to see the media track down the prominent climate change deniers and asked to explain themselves but the media does not really work in this way. Both my American friend and I are reminding ourselves that our recently lost loved ones could well have had their deaths accelerated during this heatwave and we are both thankful that we have not lost our loved ones under these circumstances. The day is due to have an early start as my American friend is die to have her car into the garage a 8.15 or 8.30 to have it serviced and I am going to accompany her so that whilst the car is in the garage we can go off and have an extended stroll and/or coffee nearby. Wondering when the weather pattern is finally going to break, the BBC weather forecast is indicating that a shift in the weather pattern is expected by Thursday, bringing more unsettled and changeable conditions and we expect an increasing chance of heavy, sometimes thundery, showers rolling into the following weekend. This is fine by me just so long as the midweek of this week  is to be fine as the U3A coach trip to Port Sunlight will take place then. Much of the country are wondering and anticipating the semi-final that England will play against Argentina and whilst the England team show considerable fallibilities in defence, the Argentina team do not have the stars of old (apart from the ageing Messi) and, as the Swiss showed the other day, may well be very beatable. Every time that Messi takes to the field, he must have the feeling that the current match in which he is laying could well be last World Cup match in what is a remarkable record. Meanwhile, the England team have to psych themselves up  for another ‘do or die’ effort of which the best example recently was when they beat Mexico on their home turf as it were. As soon as July is ‘out of the way’ the schools will break up and we will enter the holiday  season proper. I would imagine that with difficulties in the airports and heatwave conditions in the UK that ‘stay-at-home’ holidays may well soar this summer. Although I would love a few days in the Lake District, I would imagine that without some pre-booking the prices will be sky high. 

The morning turned out to be quite entertaining, one way or another. For a start., my friend and I were going  to have her car serviced by a garage on an  industrial estate near to Bromsgrove but taking a short cut to get onto the correct road, we turned off a road too early and finished up in a new housing estate absolutely chock-a-bloc with dead ends and roads leading nowhere. When we had extricated ourselves from this lot, we had a similar wild goose chase around the huge industrial estate until  we discovered the location of the garage. Having dropped off the car, we decided to spend the morning at least in Droitwich but the very interesting but really quirky coffee shop n an incredibly old building in an ancient part of Droitwich so we had to make plans. We visited various charity shops and then finally made our way to a hotel we had passed which had opened a coffee shop downstairs in the last year or so,. This was tastefully furnished and we enjoyed some really excellent mocha coffee there, supplemented by a shared cinnamon bun. Then we met a bunch of wonderful Norwegians enjoying a  coffee in a pavement cafe and my American friend, knowing some words of Swedish, managed to have a few words with them in a Scandinavian language. Evidently we discussed football with them but they were a really jolly crowd of two men and their wives and my American friend never passes by the opportunity to converse with people from different cultures. They told us that the Norwegian media were convinced that the Norwegians had been denied a goal as a ball that was booted high ino the air actually hit the ‘spider camera’ hoisted above the pitch and came down at a strange, deflected angle from which  the England then scored. FIFA deny the incident completely (as they would) whist the English press have downplayed the import of the whole incident, doubting whether the episode  had actually occurred. Then we popped into an adjacent hotel where we had a meal of ‘mini’ fish and chips in a delightful courtyard round at the back, also having a wonderful and informative conversation with someone who had lived in Droitwich all their lives and was an absolute fount of knowledge. Then we did another spot of charity shop shopping where we both bought some summer apparel and thence to home where we sent the afternoon until it was time for us to pick up the car after its service. I bought a shirt in the right size and also some shorts to complement my other pair whilst my friend bought some white cotton trousers and a top. Tonight, I have a dilemma whether to watch a program on Sky Arts about the life of Mozart or to watch the start of a BBC series on Evolution fronted by the naturalist, Chris Packham. I chose the Mozart on the grounds that I had to watch this as it is actually being transmitted whereas the BBC program can actually be got on the BBC iPlayer.

There will be two items of news gripping the nation as we awoke yesterday morning. The first of these are the developments following the murder of the prominent right wing politician, Ann Widdecombe. The latest news is that a 28 year old white male has been arrested in South Yorkshire, an initial white male suspect having been released the day before. It appears that Ann Widdecombe hd been murdered at least 24 hours before the discovery of a body which followed her non appearance for  a TV interview.   No doubt, the police will give out further information as and when they see fit but in the meantime, prominent members of the Reform Party are being given round-the-clock police protection as a precautionary measure. The huge question arises whether this was a political assassination or just an opportunistic murder and no doubt the political airwaves will be full of speculation until more information is supplied to us. The second  huge story is, of course, Englands progression in the World Cup as England progress towards the semi-finals having beaten Norway 2:1. The match was quite a tense affair and one has to say was not filled with the ‘beautiful’ football that we associated with France and Spain who are drawn against each other in the first of the semi-finals. Both England and Norway had potential goals disallowed after VAR reviews so a kind of parity was in evidence. England probably made more attacks on their opponent’s goal but without the normal killer touches we associate with a top team. Norway scored their goal  after the normal terrible England defensive lapse where our back line went to sleep and were not aware of the potential danger of a counter attack which is a common pattern these days. But the hero of the day was undoubtedly Jude Bellingham who scored both of the England goals, the second  being an opportunistic rebound after the Norway goalkeeper had failed to clear a shot on goal. In the post match interview, the England manager was of the view that England were to some extent lucky and had not played very well, which view was contradicted by the players themselves. England will now meet Argentina who prevailed against Switzerland in the other quarter final, having beaten them 3:1 after extra time. For the third successive match, Argentina earned a chaotic win with an underwhelming performance despite starting the match as clear favourites. After taking the lead early on, they went nearly 90 minutes without another shot on target between Mac Allister’s opener and an acrobatic Lisandro Martinez effort deep into second half injury time that was well saved low by Kobel. Switzerland were playing with 10 men for some of the second half as one of the their players received a second yellow card following an incident in which was adjudged to have dived. So two yellow cards equate to one red one and so the offending player was sent off, reducing Switzerland to ten men. According to some match reports, Switzerland proved to be the better team for much of the match but Argentina seem to have a knack of always scraping through in the end. I doubt many people in the country stayed up to watch the Argentina match after the excitement and extra time of the England match. In some ways, as sometimes happens, the semi-finalists of France and Spain will meet each other, and these two teams would have provided the best football were they both to be in the final. My predictions for the rest of the World Cup are for a final between France and Argentina with France actually winning the World Cup but, as always, the games will be decided on incredibly fine margins and, perhaps, some refereeing/VAR decisions. There is a definite change in the weather pattern today as it is both cloudier and more windy than of late but I think that most of the country would really welcome a few dramatic thunderstorms and downpours from this point onward.

In the morning, I deliberately took it very easy as I had a late night the evening beforehand as the football had delayed things so much. The political news is still dominated by the Ann Widdecombe murder case and although few details have emerged so date, we know that a white male as been arrested in South Yorkshire and the police has gone so far as to say there is no evident terrorist or even overtly political motivation in evidence. This must be a sort of good news because anything resembling a political assassination might have all kind of unpredictable consequences. In the late afternoon, my American friend and I  went off to a (free) recorder concert in the local parish church as part of the Bromsgrove festival. This went on slightly too long for our tastes at about an hour and a quarter so we were relieved to have taken along some cushions with us to alleviate some of the hardness of the wooden pews. We returned home to make a salad tea together and to reflect that this was the first night for as long as we could remember when there wasn’t a football match to occupy and divert us. My son and daughter-in-law made contact after their brief holiday  in the Lake District and we discussed some possible  dates when we might meet up with our distant cousins in late July. The week ahead is going to be quite a busy one what with one thing or another the highlight being a day trip out to the Port Sunlight industrial heritage site on Wednesday. It looks as though the weather is becoming slightly more tolerable for us in the few days ahead but a massive fire has started in the North Wales area near the Conway valley which Meg and I used to visit when her aunt and uncle were still alive and living in that area. The weather has been so hot and dry for so long that the whole country must be like a tinder box and it is only to be hoped that fires do not break out in several parts of the country. It will not be long now before Andy Burnham takes over the leadership of the Labour Party and we know that one of his long term ambitions has been to establish a National Care Service to parallel the National Health Service. But the age-old question remains of how, as a society we are to fund such a much needed venture – politicians  of all political stripes have kicked this particular can down the road for decades because of the enormous costs involved.

The day before yesterday dawned without a cloud in the sky and I wondered whether this presaged the start of another really hot day. But the local weather forecast is predicting a high of 31° and perhaps some slight breezes which will make the weather a bit more bearable. For the record, though, when I visited town the day before and then returned to my car which had been in the sunny part of the car park for some two hours, the internal temperature of the car registered at 50° and the steering wheel, despite being a sort of rigid foam, was too hot to handle. The news was ominated throughout the day with the reports of the very right wing politician, Anne Widdicombe, who was reported to have died at the age of 78 after her retirement to a village on the edge of Dartmoor. But the news of her death was soon replaced by the news that she had had actually been murdered and the police were looking for a 26 year white male suspect. This news was given out by the local police in a news conference and the ‘white male’ had been apprehended and arrested not many miles from the scene of the murder. But in the morning came the news that, after questioning, the police had released this suspect and he was no longer under any investigation. So the manhunt continues for the actual killer or killers and no doubt the media will be be in a frenzy on this subject throughout the day. Ann Widdicombe was what might be considered as an extreme conviction politician and her hard right views meant she left the Conservative party and, via UKIP, and the Brexit party ended up in Reform even becoming a Reform MEP before the country left the EC. One story that is told about her and is widely believed is that she condoned the use of shackles on pregnant women in gaol to prevent their escape and condoned the use of these shackles on female prisoners. But the Daily Mirror published a fulsome apology indicating that they were wrong in publishing a story about Widdicombe’s advocacy of shackles whilst women were giving birth but the story is still widely believed, although it is probably apocryphal. She converted to Catholicism (to the dismay of most liberal Catholics) and fiercely denounced any part of the liberal consensus such as gay rights or any extension to the abortion laws. The tributes have poured in for her from across the political spectrum and she now joins the list of politicians who have been murdered in recent years (Jo Cox from Labour, David Amess from the Conservatives). The massive question that remains for the police is to determine whether the murder is a ‘normal’ one (an old lady robbed for her presumed possessions) of whether her murder is for political motives. The past murder of politicians seems to have been associated by individuals with a mental illness or personality disorder but of course, in this case, we shall just have to wait and see. Now that a suspect as been apprehended and then released, a lot of valuable time may well have been lost allowing any potential suspect to travel a long way away or even change their appearance. Yesterday was carnival day in Bromsgrove which is a day to which I do not look forward. The evening before  my American friend were thwarted in our attempts to have a quiet walk in the park as the entrance and access roads were all coned off but my friend and I had a walk in the cool of the nearby cemetery which has plenty of tall trees to keep us cool. We have decided to spend the day together keeping cool and preparing our meals together – in fact anything to avoid the crowds of carnival day and the persistent heat. Later in the day, there is the much anticipated England vs. Norway football match which we will watch together having already seen Spain defeat Belgium 2:0 in their quarter finals match. 

In the late morning my American friend called around and we found a cool spot at the back of the house where we could enjoy some cool drinks. I had rescued a couple of so-called directors’ chairs from the inner reaches of our garage and then taken them into the garden for a brush down. Then we started to think about preparing some lunch together and whilst I cooked the salmon in a special ridged grilling pan that I have (the ridges prevent burning and sticking) my friend prepared the salad elements of the meal. Whilst I was on the road yesterday, I had purchased  a special little green bottle which proved ideal for making a French dressing from balsamic Vinegar and a high grade olive oil. The meal turned out to be delicious and the salmon was some of the best I have ever tasted but we deployed a little honey and mustard on part of the salmon and Thousand Island dressing on other part. The whole meal was complemented with a bottle of Asti Spumante and it was an almost perfect accompaniment to the rest of the meal. I read on Sky News during the day that day will briefly turn into night for parts of Europe next month as the continent experiences its first solar eclipse in nearly three decades. The rare celestial event on Wednesday 12 August will see the moon pass directly between the Earth and the sun, briefly plunging people in parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, Spain and a small corner of Portugal into darkness, according to NASA. The UK will only experience a partial solar eclipse, but it is still set to cover the vast majority of our view of the sun. It is going to be the first total solar eclipse visible from Europe since 1999, when one could be seen from most of Cornwall and Devon. This time the UK and Ireland will lose sight of around 90% of the sun rather than all of it. So this event is about one month away and will be well worth a witnessing of it. This has to be done indirectly and NASA are giving the advice to use indirect viewing methods, such as projecting the sun’s image through a pinhole camera, a colander, or the gaps between tree leaves, without ever looking at the sun directly. I am not quite sure how you view an eclipse through a colander but presumably when the event draws near, we shall receive much more relevant and practical advice but, of course, one never has to look at the sun directly. A 90% partial solar eclipse is not equivalent to night-time darkness but the ambient light will dim to resemble a slightly overcast day or the lighting about 30 minutes before sunset. The sky will still be bright, but you will notice a strange silvery twilight, crisper shadows, and potentially a slight drop in temperature. Even with 90% of the Sun covered, the remaining 10% is still thousands of times brighter than a full moon, making the change much less dramatic than a total eclipse. The whole nation seems to be counting down the hours until 10.00pm which is the scheduled start time for the England vs. Norway quarter final which I am pretty convinced the Norwegians will win.

The day before yesterday turned out to be a particularly hot one and not the kind of day one one would normally think of eating a curry. Nonetheless, it was the day designated for the latest venture of the U3A Curry Club and so about 18 of turned up to a curry house (inside a hotel) in a venue I Droitwich which none of us had visited before. We had a very enjoyable meal although we had to wait for the best part of an hour whilst our food was being prepared for us but, in the event, the food was well worth the wait and my butter chicken was in a delicious sauce. The long table was split into  two groups and I was fortunate enough to be in the lively and story telling part of the table so it made for a very enjoyable evening all round. I knew some of the participants from the Classical Music group  as well as my local church so all of tis helps to make the event feel a little less ‘cliquey’ than is sometimes possible. When I returned home, I watched the second half of the France vs. Morocco football match which France won quite convincingly with two stunning goals from the French strikers, one of whom was Mbappe. The match this evening is to be Belgium  vs. Spain the result of which  is a lot less predictable- Spain may prevail but they have had a slow start to this tournament.  Soon the whole of the World Cup will be over and a more normal life can resume.  Last night was so hot in my bedroom despite a fan so I spent the first half of the night sleeping downstairs on the sofa in the cooler lounge before retreating to bed in the middle of the night. One of the things that brightens up this part of the summer is the Bromsgrove festival in which several concerts and other events take place. As you might expect, I tend to gravitate towards the ones that are provided in our local church and only a contribution towards expenses solicited. As the weather has been so warm, I have noticed that there is a marked diminution in the footfall I the local High Street and the local shops are bound to suffer. But in the Autumn, a whole new development is taking place which is a mixture of high grade office accommodation and some communal space. The building  has been constructed before our very eyes so it will be interesting to see if it does provide an asset for the town. Local opinion is quite divided as to the merits of the semi-circular building arising before our eyes, not enhanced by a colour of cladding which bears a strong resemblance to rust. After it opens, no doubt to a great fanfare and flurry, it will be interesting to see if a coffee-cum-meeting place is established and how successful (or over-priced!) it is likely to be. The most prominent growth industry along our local High Street has been the opening of charity shops supplemented by a few vape outlets but I dare say this can be replicated across many of the High Streets in the UK. In a month or so’s time, we may be able to assess whether this hot spell has actually enhanced or diminished our GDP but I would not be surprised if the overall effect were not to be negative for the British economy.

The morning turned out very hot but I needed to make my along the High Street in order to secure an optician’s appointment with the optician who has testing me for about the past 15 years or so, if not longer and we always end up having a long chat with each other. Having made the appointment, I made my way to my favourite horse-sanctuary charity that I try and visit each week. They missed me last week but I explained to them the fact that my friend and I were making our way to Worcester Royal Infirmary for some scans and was then caught in the horrendous 5-hour traffic jam on the way home. Then as I was walking back along the High Street, I bumped into one of the  members of my Tai Chi class who, as it happened, occupied a very senior position at the University of Birmingham so we had quite a lot in common with each other given our experience of the higher education sector. We discussed at length the ways in which we were attempting to look after ourselves, health-wise, and also discussed  an issue common to many of us where my fellow class member was facing the problem of the most appropriate health and care needs for her elderly parents who were still both alive. When I returned to my own house, I was confronted with a scene of pure mayhem. My neighbours were evidently having a big party celebration and there were cars parked everywhere, including on the green area in front of our house which is strictly forbidden to motor vehicles as there are drainage pipes below the surface that could be damaged by vehicles. To compound matters, my access road was completely blocked by a large delivery vehicle which had probably lost its way and come down our drive. I had to reverse all of the way out onto the main road whereupon a huge delivery lorry bound for the building site down the road confronted me as I was reversing. Once these obstacles had been negotiated, I needed to go and explain to my neighbour that her relative needed to move the car off the communal green area so that she did not occasion any damage and this having been done, I could then get into my own house, somewhat delayed. then I needed to think about some lunch conscious of the fact that I need to keep my protein levels high so I settled on a prawn omelette with a few salad items of garnish. I often play ClassicFM in odd moments and as I type they are playing J S Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Mans desiring’ which was played at our wedding in 1967 as well as Meg’s funeral. In fact hardly a day passes when a piece of music intimately associated with Meg’s life is not played on this channel so this piece of music evoked some bitter-sweet memories. Naturally, after a day like today I am looking forward to my evening walk in the park followed by the exciting football match of Spain vs. Belgium.

I was not joined in the park on the evening before last but nonetheless felt the need to go out and get some fresh air. So I went to our local park to enjoy some cooling breezes and sat on the favourite bench which Meg and I used to occupy nearly every day in our trips to the park. In her last year, she used to be pushed in her wheelchair but before that our respite on this particular bench was a daily occurrence. It is quite a strange thought to look or over the vista of the park and to know that Meg was seeing almost exactly the same thing. As I have mentioned before, by an extraordinary twist of fate, my American friend and her mother used to occupy the same seat but at different times of the day which is why our paths dd not cross in that time period. Yesterday, I received one of those particularly  welcome emails from a distant cousin asking whether we might meet later in the month, to which  have enthusiastically responded. Actually, the cousin is not very distant but the grand daughter of Meg’s uncle Teddy  and Meg and I as university students were asked to be god-parents to her at her christening in about 1968. She has now retired as a teacher and lives in Bolton but Meg and I managed to see her and her mother (an opera singer no less!) on at least a couple  of occasions. We have agreed to meet in an RHS garden centre in Bridgewater which is almost just down the road for us. I explained that my son and daughter-in-law were on holiday but I am sure would love to make the acquaintance of some distant cousins who they have never actually met but I am sure will make a very joyous family occasion. Being an ‘only one’ and born when Meg’s parents were in their 40’s, these cousins are probably the last of Meg’s surviving cousins but they are a delightful family and now that we are all retired, I am sure we can see a lot more of each other. Very unfortunately, they did not manage to attend Meg’s funeral a year ago as it had been a long scheduled ‘hand-over’ date for my cousin’s husband on the occasion of his own retirement but I have a spare ‘Order of Service’ I can take for them. In the meanwhile I have Tai Chi to which to look forward this morning and a Curry Club dinner in the early  evening. One little item of news which attracted my attention was the official pardon granted to Ruth Ellis who was the last women to be hanged in 1955. She shot her partner but nowadays would be recognised as a victim of domestic abuse (she had been hit so hard in the stomach that she suffered a miscarriage). The death penalty was the only available at the time for murder but even the judge in her trial pleaded for clemency but he was ignored. Technically speaking, Ruth Ellis’s crime has not been pardoned but the sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment and although 71 years after the event may bring a smidgeon of solace to her surviving relatives. Most people will never have heard of Ruth Ellis but her case was very widely reported at the time.

In have just read I todays ‘Sky News‘ that the Inland revenue has admitted that it may have over-taxed 1.4 million pensioners with an error in the way that the state pension was calculated. But before we all throw up in hands in glee, the amounts are question are miniscule ` about £1.74 a year for three years – so in the fullness of time, we might expect a refund of £5 in total. They will probably just adjust our tax codes  so that they do not have to reimburse any real money as well. My American friend and I have been in communication to work out a joint strategy how we are simultaneously going to avoid the heat, watch the football and enjoy ourselves over the next few days. Tomorrow, we are doing our best to keep out of the sun (even more important for my friend as she is fair-skinned) but we are going to meet in the park tomorrow, spend the day together in my house or garden on Saturday where we hunt out cool spots and/or use my big fan where it is cool, go to Solihull on Sunday to get a new TV bought from John Lewis in the morning and then go to a (free) recorder concert in the afternoon in the local parish church, and finally get he car serviced on Monday. I suspect that the hot spell may well last for at bast the best part of another week after which we could all do with some torrential thunderstorms. The more I think about it, the more relieved I am that Meg did not have to live through this terribly hot spell which I think she would not have survived (and the same goes for very aged mother of my American friend) In the evening, it just happens to be the designated night for our ‘Curry Club’ monthly venture but it is not the best of evenings in which to consume a hot curry! We have the football later on in the evening between France and Morocco which a repeat of a similar match held at the same stage in the competition in the last Word Cup. But  I was astonished to discover that the match is to be referred by a panel of five Argentinian judges and Argentina have a vested interest in ensuring that France does not reach the finals and pose a great threat to Argentina. With the late VAR decisions in the Argentina v. Egypt match in which the Egyptians had a goal disallowed because of a rough-and-tumble contact some 17 seconds before the goal was scored, there are some voices arguing that FIFA and the inappropriate utilisation of VAR technology are being used to determine the outcome of some matches. Now that Trump has demonstrated how pliable FIFA can be when subject to political pressure, it perhaps comes as no surprise that conspiracy theories and shouts of ‘fix’ are starting to arise. I saw a very well argued presentation on YouTube not arguing ‘fix’ as such but indicating that using VAR for situations in which it was never intended was actually subverting and not enhancing the game.

The evening before last, I went for a walk with my American friend in the park not meeting until 7.15 to watch the end of the football. At this stage of the day, there are some wonderful refreshing breezes in the park and it makes for a very relaxing end to the day. Although on the notice board it states that the closing time is 8.00pm in the summer, we both left at 8.15 and there seemed to be a fair number of both cars and people around so how the actual closing time operates is a bit of a mystery. The World Cup is getting to the exciting closing stages at the moment. I was watching the Argentina vs. Egypt and about ten minutes before the end of the match, Eygpt seemed to be point of eliminating Argentina, the world champions. But then Argentina pulled off one the  most astonishing come-backs of all time by scoring three goals in eleven minutes and it looked as though Messi, who had not had a particularly good game, saved his best until the last. Egypt felt they had been unfairly robbed of a goal as a VAR review in the build up to the goal showed a foul but whether this had any real impact upon the scoring of the goal will be argued about for a long, long time. VAR is proving very useful for some decisions but is creating other problems in its strict interpretation. So we are left in a situation wit six European teams, plus Argentina and Morocco left in the quarter finals. I would be amazed if England gets past Norway as they may be called upon to repeat their heroics of their win against Mexico recently. Turning away from football, the domestic political scene is producing dramas of its own. Nigel Farage has announced his intention to resign as an MP and to fight a by-election to attempt to regain some political credibility. But all of the major political parties are refusing to participate in this ‘game’. The fallout from Nigel Farage’s decision to call a by-election in his seat continues. The decision from the Reform UK leader is being described by some as a farce, as all the major parties are refusing to stand a candidate against him in Clacton. Labour has branded the vote a circus, the Tories said it was fake, the Lib Dems deemed it a stunt, and the Greens called it desperate. Farage has offered to pay for the election, but the suggestion has been rejected as unworkable. Due to archaic procedures in parliament, it is technically impossible for an MP to resign their role unless they are given permission by the Treasury. So far it is not clear whether this has been granted to Farage, or even if he has formally applied. So we are very much in uncharted territory as it appears that if the by-election does go ahead, Farage will secure his victory only against joke candidates and his credibility will be damaged and not enhanced. At this point of time, Farage as not actually relinquished his seat and therefore Parliamentary enquiries into his past funding will continue. Parliament will go into a summer recess shortly and we are entering what in politics is sometimes called the ‘silly season’ so we shall able to wait and see how these antics unfold in the coming days. One thing that emerged, to the amusement and much merriment of the media circus, as that Nigel Farage is liable to have at least one challenger in the by-election which he has triggered by resigning, hoping to evade parliamentary scrutiny of his finances. It is a feature of by- elections in the UK that often joke candidates enter the contest because  they know that they will be afforded a certain amount of publicity in the interests of fairness. One such candidate goes by the name of ‘Count Binface’ and he dresses up as a black waste disposal bin. So, it looks as though Nigel Farage may spend the summer campaigning against a black dustbin and, it is not inconceivable that disgruntled Labour, Liberal  and Green inclined voters might lend him their votes in order to defeat Farage. If this were to happen (unlikely, but not impossible)then Farage would lose all credibility and his political career would effectively be over. Mr Farage looks almost certain to win. But if another candidate, such as Count Binface, does surprisingly well in the absence of the main parties it could be another blow to the Reform leader. There were already reports of donations being offered for the Binface campaign. Polling expert and Tory peer Lord Hayward told a newspaper ‘It could be a triple embarrassment. First the major parties not standing. Second and most crucially the turnout because Farage has to show that a large number of Clacton voters still support him. And third how well candidates like Count Binface actually do’

The day has been a quiet day only punctuated by weekly shopping in the middle of the day. But the afternoon has been incredibly hot and I just ventured out to pull out some really tall weeds ready for disposal in the brown-lidded bin tomorrow morning. Then I devoted some of the afternoon  by going through some past copies of ‘The Times’ to extract useful clippings before the newspapers get collected tomorrow morning. There are some reports from a NATO summit held in Ankara that  Donald Trump’s hold on reality may be slipping quite badly in public. At one point, in a rambling and meandering speech he appeared  to confuse the Ukrainian president with Vladimir Putin and on another occasion referred to the Islamic Republic of Japan (rather than Iran) These verbal gaffes are becoming more frequent and those close to him must be aware this mental powers are diminishing. He has even threatened to take over Greenland again (a sovereign territory, administered by Denmark and part of NATO) but may even have forgotten in the afternoon  that he said this in the morning. We have no football to divert us this evening and so await the start of the quarter finals over the forthcoming weekend. France is almost certain to be one of the finalists but the other could be one of Spain, England, Norway or Belgium. I would put my money on a France v. Spain final but football matches can sometimes be decided by the cruellest twist of fate or even a disputed VAR decision.  This weekend is going to be the town fête and I think my American friend and I will discuss some strategies for keeping well out of the way of the crowds if that is possible. Certainly, the children will enjoy it on their floats but the traffic flows throughout the town are severely disrupted as roads are closed off and the normal rhythms  of life disrupted.

Well, I caught up on a little bit on sleep last night but not enough to eliminate the deficit. Yesterday morning, I was particularly  pleased to see that Belgium had knocked USA comprehensively out of the World Cup as the US goalkeeper made a terrible and simple error in letting in a Belgian goal. After the controversy over the reinstatement of the USA player, suspended after the issue of a red card but allowed back to play after a Trump intervention, this was surely a just result. We are not yet at the stage where the last eight have been fully determined but European teams dominate the later stages of the competition. I would be amazed if France did not turn out to the ultimate winners as their football has been beautiful to watch and ruthlessly efficient at the same time. Soon, I say to myself, the World Cup will be over and we can return to a more normal existence in the evenings. My American friend and I are taking the opportunity to meet in the local park at about 6.00pm most evenings and, at this time of day, there is often a cooling breeze and we do a couple of circuits walking around the lake, chatting with each other and with the dog walkers who are in a similar relaxed frame of mind. Later on today, we have to acclimatise ourselves to another heatwave, but it appears, by all accounts, to be somewhat less extreme than a week or so ago and this time we are all well prepared for it. I have consulted the long range weather forecasts and it does appear that this time around the temperatures will not be quite so excessive but may well last for longer and a figure of 10 days is being quoted. France has recorded over 2,000 ‘excess’ deaths attributable to the hot spell and whilst these extreme weathers may not actually be killing the elderly population as such it is probably accelerating their days by some weeks or months. There are also some reports that the heatwave affecting the US may well impact upon the later stages of the World Cup as well and, despite the mandatory hydration breaks taken half way through each half, the games are liable to be played at such a pace that collapse through heat exhaustion is quite possible. Although my weekly session of Pilates beckons at midday, the actual studio is air conditioned so this should not be a source of stress for us. On the domestic political  front, the Reform leader Nigel Farage is coming increasing scrutiny for the donations he has received from crypto-currency billionaires, one of them domiciled in Thailand. He is currently under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards so we shall not hear anything  for several  days or even weeks. Bit I was perturbed to listen to a ‘vox pop’ interview with members of the public who when told of Nigel Farage’s ‘transgressions’ (if such they prove to be) was of the opinion that ‘they were all at it’ and this means that the whole process of political debate and discourse is threatened, if not debased, if the public are convinced that all integrity is being lost from public life. We seem to think that in the UK that politics is not as ‘dirty’ as in other nations but I do get the impressions that standards of integrity are constantly being loosened over the years. Part of the problem is that the amount of money sloshing around the world’s financial system means that many of the political leaders can be bought off quite easily as the power and influence of the huge and largely American corporations  gives them an income which surpasses most of the national income of the countries of the United Nations.

So I attended my Pilates session which is part of my weekly routine and we spent quite a lot of our session discussing my recent experiences of the traffic jam on the M5 at the end of last week, We are well used to traffic jams on the M5 and in particular on a Friday  and as there is not a clear alternative route running down the west of England and hold ups on this road are quite a common occurrence particularly on a Friday (which is day when many are going to/returning from a holiday in the West country) After I returned home I made myself a mackerel salad having  many of the necessary ingredients to hand. There was some domestic political news breaking in the afternoon as Nigel Farage has announced his intention to resign as an MP and to seek reelection from the voters of Clacton (96% white and quite impoverished so natural UKIP/Reform territory) Nigel Farage is the subject of at least two Parliamentary enquiries that he was the recipient of large amounts of money that he failed to declare. Farage argues that these monies were a ‘gift’ before he came an MP and were designed to offer him a degree of personal protection from the constant threats made against him but the Parliamentary rules are clear that donations made before one becomes an MP that threaten the integrity of the political process should be declared. But it could be that that there are even more allegations and enquiries concerning these donations which amount to millions of pounds. Farage’s claims to be the most persecuted politician in the UK hardly stack up when two MPs (Labour’s Jo Cox and the Conservative Sir David Amess ) have actually been murdered as a result of their parliamentary activities. Being hit by a custard pie whilst campaigning does not stack up against actually being murdered but, not for the first time, Farage is guilty of hype. He is claiming that he is being ‘stitched up’ by the political establishment but he is engaging in the most enormous political gamble to attempt to redress the political agenda but this whole attempt could well backfire leaving him in a most humiliating position. Farage is banking upon the fact that he will win ‘in the court of public opinion’ but what the good voters of Clacton will think about their MP and his antics remains to be seen. Certainly the vast amounts of money sloshing around Farage and the Reform party now present plenty of opportunities for his opponents in a by-election to have ready made ammunition to fire against him. It is too early to say at this stage whether the opposition parties might coalesce around one figure opposing Farage but a Conservative candidate might be the obvious choice with other parties (such as Labour) scarcely bothering to campaign

The morning before last was when England were scheduled to play Mexico in the fabulous Asteca stadium in Mexico City in the football World Cup. I thought that this was a match that England were destined to lose as they were playing in the rarified atmosphere of Mexico City at a height greater than Ben Nevis against essentially a team playing on their home ground  who had hardly ever been beaten in this stadium. In fact the record of Mexico i this stadium is only two losses in the last 89 games so the statistical odds were greatly stacked against England. I had not intended to watch the match but this intention changed in the course of the night. After I had gone to bed knowing that  had an early start the next morning, I woke up in the middle of the night just at the point where the English striker, Jude Bellingham (from Stourbridge i.e. almost a local lad) had scored two goals with only a gap of 97 seconds between them. So England were leading 2:0 only for the Mexicans to pull back a goal going into half time at 2:1. At this point, I was wide awake and was sufficiently excited to watch the second half of the match which was pulsating. England were awarded a penalty from which Harry Kane scored  and at that point England seemed to have victory assured with a 3:1 scoreline. But then after a controversial VAR decision, England had a penalty awarded against them and worst was to follow when an English player was shown the red card. i.e. sent off for a reckless challenge whilst defending the goal. So the game became massively more challenging England were down to 10 men and defending a 3:2 lead. The Mexicans launched wave upon wave of attack upon the English goal for what was about the last 36 minutes of the game which by some inspired substitutions the England team managed to repel. Then thee was an unbearable 11 minutes of extra time added which became more than 12 minutes and the England team fight the game of their lives to grimly hand on and to secure a victory against Mexico very much against the odds. The England team played better than at any other time in the tournament and each player excelled themselves with one of the most exciting, and noteworthy England football performances of all time. Mexico’s pure footballing strength can be debated, but given all the complications in the buildup around the altitude, the kickoff time, the weather and the furore outside the team hotel, Sunday’s triumph has to rank as one of England’s finest tournament victories away from Wembley. This was only Mexico’s third home defeat in 90 matches, and England did it playing with 10 men for 36 minutes. England won the World Cup in 1966 and reached the final of Euro 2020, but both tournaments were at home. Notable past wins include beating Argentina in Japan in 2002, Croatia 4-2 in 2004 and Netherlands 2-1 in the Euro 2024 semifinals, but nowhere have they faced an atmosphere quite as hostile as this. If England can rouse themselves in the quarter finals, their opponents will be Norway who have reached their position by defeating Brazil 3:0. So against my better intentions, I only had a couple of hours of sleep because of the football but owing to the significant victory, I am actually  pleased to have witnessed this in real time. One question has been raised about the VAR officials who were all from Latin American countries and the question is raised whether their integrity may have been compromised in a game as significant as this one. The penalty award awarded to England was a clear cut penalty but the one awarded against them was much more questionable as Harry Kane’s outstretched foot was reaching for the ball when contact was made with the foot of an opposing player.

Despite my lack of sleep, I got on the road just after 7.45 and was able to deliver the car ready for its service just before  8.15 – by getting it in at the front of the queue, I am hopeful that the service might be completed by 11.30 or so. I walked down to the nearby Morrison’s supermarket and then availed myself of one of their cooked breakfasts, eating all of the protein elements but avoiding the toast. I had picked up a copy of the newspaper on the way and so after my breakfast, I engaged in solving a ‘Fiendish’ Soduku which, of course, helps to pass the time. Then, upon successfully completing this, I made a slow and deliberate peregrination of the store looking at some of the hardware and clothing elements and making a note of some of the things that I might but in the future. I was tempted into one purchase, however, which was a Morrison’s own brand rechargeable electric toothbrush which I bought for £15.00. Then I sat outside in the sunshine reading my newspaper and was delighted to get a call from the garage that m car was ready cor collection at just about 11.30 as they had promised. When  got home I had a little doze and then made myself a salad  which was quite sufficient for me after the large cooked breakfast. A massive footballing controversy has erupted this morning and one that seems quite unprecedented. In advance of the USA v Belgium played to be played very late tonight, one of the star American players who had been issued with a red card and was therefore suspended for one game, was reinstated. It has emerged that Donald Trump telephoned the head of FIFA ‘requesting’ (i.e. demanding) a review which was granted and the red card although not rescinded is put on probation for a year, releasing Badogun the American star players from tonight’s match. The rest of the footballing world in general, and UEFA in particular, are outraged because this is blatant and transparent political influence with the intention of aiding (or not handicapping) the USA team. Some commentators are already making the point that the USA team can  only be damaged by such shenanigans for if the lose, they lose but were they to win this would be seen as the direct result of cheating and unfair political influence. One could only wish that the entire Belgium team be led off the pitch if the ‘suspended’ player is allowed to play and that every other opposing team would the same. A wise American manager might decide it would be the USA’s best interests and the sport as a whole that the suspended player not be picked for selection for today’s match but we shall have to wait and see what transpires.

So on July 4th, ‘Independence Day’ for America Washington DC awoke to a racist group, the Patriotic Front, marching through the capital city waving confederate flags, celebrating their ‘whiteness’ and spreading a message of hate. Evidently, this march had not been banned by the Trump regime, but it was an ugly reminder of the depth of the polarisation of the American political system. The marchers all had their faces hidden behind a white cotton mask to avoid identification. The group appeared to be led by Thomas Rousseau, founder of the neo-fascist, white supremacist organisation Patriot Front. Members of the group wore white masks and gathered in front of DC’s Union Station. They later marched towards Capitol Hill as members chanted ‘Life, liberty, victory!’ and ‘Reclaim America!’ during the Saturday demonstration. Masked members were filmed riding the Metro as other riders looked on warily. The day before yesterday was a type of ‘Rugby fest’ and I saw the best part of three matches. In one of them, Wales got the better of Fiji which is now mean feat these days whilst Scotland overhauled Argentina. But the England team were very clearly outplayed by the South Africans in a game played in Johannesburg. The evening before last also showed the France vs. Paraguay match. The first half of tis turned out to be predictable with a very stout and well organised defence by Paraguay resisting all of the French attacks. The second  half turned a little ugly though as the Paraguay team turned to some quite cynical fouls none of which were picked up by the referee in one of the least competent episodes of refereeing ever seen in the World Cup. France were awarded a penalty after a review (although the referee, predictably, failed to spot it at first) and so France went on to a well deserved 1:0 victory and will then meet Morocco who had knocked out on of the co-hosts, Canada, earlier in the day. Meanwhile, the England match against Mexico remains scheduled at 1.00am in the morning but I do not intend to watch it and I cannot even watch the full reply being transmitted early the next morning as I have to take the car in for a service and the car has been promised to the garage by about 8.15 early in the morning. We have the Brazil vs. Norway match to which to look forward tonight with some pundits even believing that Norway might eventually prevail if the game runs to penalties after extra time. Meanwhile, later in the day I will be preparing a simple ‘meat and two veg’ for my American friend and I and we may well round this off with a post-prandial walk in the park. Although we normally enjoy a bottle of wine at the weekend, we might give this a miss as we both wish to keep  our blood sugar levels in the normal range – sweet wines, beer, cider, and sugary mixers are high in carbs and sugars, which cause an immediate spike in blood glucose. There is a band scheduled to play at 2.0pm in the afternoon but we will still be lunching at that time. The week ahead is not a particularly busy one but I will be relieved to get the car serviced and MOT tested at the start of the week and this will occupy me for most of the morning.

After I had attended my normal church service and availed myself of the obligatory coffee and biscuits I went off to my local BP service station when  picked up my copy of the Sunday newspapers and also gave the car its weekly car wash. I am quite impressed by the system that allows a pre-rinse, a hot foaming washing cycle and then a final high pressure cold water rinse to get rid of all the foam. When I got home, I made myself a tomato omelette and then set abut making preparations for lunch which involved parboiling some parsnips before they received a final roasting in the oven and then complemented with some broccoli, sprouts and an onion gravy. After we had lunched and then had a little  doze, my American friend and I entertained ourselves by asking our Smart speaker system  (‘Alexa’) to play a selection of songs from our youth, mainly it must be said from the early 1960’s. Then we had a late ‘sweet’ and set off for a walk in the park when the weather had cooled down and there were some lovely cool breezes in play. When we got home, we treated ourselves to some  blueberries and ice-cream before my friend left the house so that we could get established in front of our respective TVs in order to watch the Brazil vs. Norway match. I know that I need a fairly early night as I have to be up early in the morning to get my car into the dealership by about 8.15am for a service. T do this, I have to go to the nearby town of Redditch and spend some time entertaining myself in a local supermarket until the car service has been completed. Apart from the car service this week, the weather promises to be quite hot and threatening but perhaps not with the extreme heat of a week or so ago. So again, this will have to be carefully managed but my American friend and I have established a pattern  where we meet in our local park and do one or two circuits of the man-made lake punctuated with a sit down on a bench and lots of conversation. Later this week, I have another  ‘Curry Club’ meal in the early evening and this will be an Indian restaurant in the nearby town of Droitwich. Next weekend, my  friend and  have made tentative plans to go to John Lewis in Solihull where we may purchase a new TV my friend feels that she now needs, her other one being about 17 years old and the technology has moved on so much in recent years. 

So after our 5 hour ordeal of the day before yesterday, I did not sleep particularly well, being I suspect a little over-tired after all of the concentration. Today I looked back at some of the traffic reports of the incident and there was a remarkable lack of agreement over the actual delays experienced. National Highways were reporting delays of anything from 90 minutes to 2 hours whilst, looking at the web, it was evident from several comments that many people, myself included, had reported a delay of five hours. So why should  National Highways report a delay figure that were so evidently at variance with the facts experienced by so many of us? It is rather disconcerting, to put it mildly, then agencies of the state lie to the general public – is this to cover up their own deficiencies and to try and absolve them of any calls for them to have plans in place to ameliorate the consequences of accidents like these? The traffic reports do indicate that in the massive jam and the heat several vehicles just broke down and this added to the general chaos. Indeed, when we were about to clear the congested motorway, there was an abandoned vehicle with its emergency lights flashing stationery in the middle of the motorway and negotiating this was hazardous in the extreme as the streams of traffic on either side  of the stranded vehicle were unwilling to let us in! We succeeded  in negotiating this hazard needless to say but one can only imagine the impatience of motorists who had been stuck on the motorway for the past five hours. I personally think the Highways Agency should have closed the other lane of the motorway and then opened up an emergency space in the cash barriers to allow cars to ‘exit’ the wrong way down the motorway, under supervision, as happened to Meg and myself about 15 years ago on the M42 when we missed our flight to Spain. Actually, if we had plenty of fluid, my friend and I would not have dared to drink it as we had no access to toilet facilities. I wonder how many medical emergencies, or near emergencies, ensued as a result of all of this and whether any lessons will be learnt?  In the morning, I have read that it was being considered that the England vs Mexico match should be rescheduled to 7.00pm UK time to avoid the threat of thunder storms  but, in the event, FIFA has determined that the original starting time (1.00 am in the UK) should stay in place so there is no hope of a reprieve here. Today, I have the prospect of a concert in our local church of St Johns but I need to see how I feel before I attend this. Apart from this, I have a quiet day in prospect and am left to ponder that at least my friend and I dd not suffer any medical mishaps after our enforced and lengthened journey although we were both at the point where at the end of a journey we were both starting to experience some discomfort. I have not any lunch organised for myself today so I suspect that a sustaining omelette accompanied by salad may well be the fall-back situation.

In the morning, I made my way down to the large St John’s church where  I heard the talented local family give a performance of J Bach’s Brandenberg concertos Nos. 3,4 and 5. This was hugely enjoyable and the concert was evidently highly appreciated  by a church that was, I would estimate. some two thirds full. I had remembered to take a cushion with me and bumped into a few people that I already know, largely from my U3A ventures. After the concert, tea and cake was provided gratis but contributions were invited and I think most people gave generously. When I got home, I rescued some frozen curry from the depths of the freezer for my lunch but whilst this was cooking, I sent a letter of complaint about yesterday’s traffic delay to National Highways. The nature of my complaint was about the quality of the information given to the press during the course of the day. I complained that of the did not know that the delay for most of us was five hours and not the 1½-2 hours they had given to the media, thheir information systems were dire. If one the other had, they were aware of the length of the delays, why was the promulgated figure so much less than the experience  of thousands of us and the figure of five hours delay was much quoted on the social media. I also questioned why the other carriage way was not closed off and vehicles escorted off the road by driving the ‘wrong’ way down the motorway as happened on the M42 about fifteen years ago when Meg and  missed our holiday flight to Spain? According to the website, I may expect a reply within about 10 working days and I will be interested to see what kind of ‘gloss’ is given  to the whole incident. The AI ‘take’ on all of this is that the authorities always underestimate the actual degree of delay caused which very often exceeds the official estimates of the delay. The cynical part of my nature is that this under-reporting isnot just due to the inability of the model to assess multiplier effects but is part of a mindset that does not wish to accept criticism of their  own performance. In the afternoon and after lunch. I took a lot of pleasure in seeing Wales beat Fiji by 39:24 in one of this weekend’s Rugby Union fixtures. Another treat lies in store for shortly there is to be an England vs. South Africa match to be shown on ITV4.  It looks as throughout the  entire day, ITV are trying to show many of these Northern vs. Southern hemisphere matches in the brand new competition which has started this year with one day full of Rugby today and another in the Autumn.