We had two carers yesterday morning but they were scheduled for 7.00am at which time scarcely any of the four of us are properly awake. I did get up an hour earlier, though, so that I could get myself washed and dressed and everything put in place for the carers. After breakfast, we made our way down into town about 15 minutes earlier than normal because in our local Salvation Army shop, they had in the shop window one of those electrical heaters that stand quite upright and have a large circular fan rather than the low, horizontal models. I was pretty sure that there was only a 50% chance of it being unsold and only another 50% chance that it actually was a fan heater and not just a cold air fan but I was in luck and snaffled it up. When I got it home, I gave it a test and am pleased that it is very quiet in operation and has two heat settings including a fan only option which means that I can use it as a cool air fan in the summer. It has two heats and a variable heat control which I believe will switch the fan off or moderate its intensity once the room gets up to a particular temperature. Although it is Chinese made, it seems a pretty sturdy piece of kit and evidently has to be tested before it can be sold to the public.I do have a particular reason for wanting this piece of equipment because in the next few days, we are going to be subject to a blast of cold arctic air and snow is even contemplated by the weather forecasters. Our Music Room and my son’s in house study are both pretty cold first think in the morning, so I though a quick blast or warming air would not come amiss. We had some quiche for lunch and to accompany this, I peeled some ‘wonky’ carrots, cut them into batons and parboiled them with a few remaining fine beans. Then I popped them into the oven with a spot of oil and a drizzle of treacle so I trust it will make a good accompaniment to the quiche when it gets served up. I was texted in the late morning to ask whether I could assist a single carer – this happens a lot these days. Actually, I do not mind because I get on very well with this particular carer who just happens to be a fellow catholic to whom I retold the story of the nuns forbidding the girls in their charge to wear black patent leather shoes lest young men in the vicinity would see the reflection of their knickers and be driven wild with lust.

This afternoon, I got a telephone call from our son who has experienced a very bad bout of bronchitis that put in hospital for a day until he managed to discharge himself. His GP had suspected that at the worst, they might be dealing with a case of sepsis so the A&E moved at quite some speed to do some necessary tests to ensure that this was not the case. But after a range of tests and prophylactics my son decided that on the balance of risks he would be better off at home and not exposed to super bugs such as MRSA, all too often found in a hospital environment. So he is recovering at home and I might be able to offer some help in the forthcoming days to keep him warm, comfortable and fed with a view to speeding up his recovery which might take a week or so. Given that my daughter-in-law had an equally bad bout of bronchitis, then there is a particular irony that out of my wife and I, my son and my daughter-in-law, I seem to be the fittest of all of us at the age of 79½.

Some fascinating news is starting to emerge from the world of social media this afternoon. Several days ago, my son had informed me that he intended to delete his ‘X’ (successor to Twitter) social media account as he was so disgusted with the behaviour of Elan Musk giving massive financial and moral support to Donald Trump in return for goodness what other favours as well. So I followed him in deleting my own ‘X’ account but it seems that we are not alone. Sky News has asked the question ‘The X exodus – could Bluesky spike spark end of Elon Musks social media platform?’ Even Google appears to trust X less, with one expert telling Sky News the search engine treats X competitor Bluesky as 10 times more important than Elon Musk’s platform. Bluesky claims one million users joined the platform in one day this week. Bluesky claims one million users joined the platform in one day this week after Musk was given a job in Trump’s new government. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis, The Guardian newspaper, and even the Clifton Suspension Bridge have joined swathes of people deserting Elon Musk’s social media site X. Millions have instead joined Bluesky, which has a stronger focus on moderation, set up by former Twitter founder Jack Dorsey – who is now no longer affiliated with the social media platform – in 2019. According to the official Bluesky account, a million people joined the platform in just one day this week, after Musk was given a position in Donald Trump’s government. So this is something that I shall certainly investigate myself when I have a moment – probably in the hours after Meg is safely tucked up on bed and fast asleep when I have a bit of time to explore such things. There was also a report on Sky News which sounds so terrible it is quite hard to believe. This is that because of ‘hygiene poverty’ some 40% teachers admit to washing some of the clothes of the children under their charge, probably in a school bought washing machine as parents cannot afford to wash their children’s clothes. The same report indicated that 80% staff within schools knew of hygiene poverty and were aware of the efforts of other school staff to alleviate it. There was yet another shocking report which underlines the level of poverty and deprivation in the UK where real wages have not reason for at least a decade. This is that the so called ‘junk food’ has costs associated with it that amount to 50% more than the entire budget of the NHS. The UK has been addicted to junk food for decades now and we are second only to America in the amount that is consumed per head (unlike the rest of Europe)

The day started off fairly apart from the fact that I needed to assist one carer in the morning and it really is a full 45 minutes to get Meg up washed, dressed, hoisted into her chair and eventually sitting in front of the TV in our Music Lounge. but today was the day when our domestic help called around and I proudly showed her my new collection of porcelain mugs to nearly all of which she gave the nod of approval. As I suspected, she particularly liked the rather fine ReActivated Glaze mug which I now use for my early morning coffee. Later on the morning, we had a visit from the Eucharistic minister who is always very welcome. But today she came bearing the sad news of the probably terminal illness of a relative and naturally she was rather a sombre mood as she immediately had to make tracks for the hospital in Worcester which is some fifteen miles distant. We had received an invitation from our University of Birmingham friend which we accepted with alacrity and also shared a coffee with another regular who we will see tomorrow in any case. We felt no pressure of time this morning as the care agency have retimed the lunchtime visit to an hour later so this gives me time to get Meg up the hill and in the house before I start some food preparation. I made some smoked mackerel risotto today which despite the carbohydrates associated with the rice gives us a much bigger portion of oily fish which I am sure gives us a better serving of protein than we would get in a bought fish pie. My phone seemed to be going all morning with messages of one sort or another. Firstly, BT had written to me to say that I had not returned the Apple TV add-on which they supplied when I updated my phone but did not need and sent back to them. So I had to dig out my tracking number from my Post Office receipt to prove to them that I had sent it back as otherwise I would be charged for it. Then I received a further two text messages followed by en email to say that they had, after all received the ‘add-on’ back again but their systems needed to be updated. Then I received a report from my diabetic retinopathy which I attended last week but this went straight through to my NHS app through which I had to access it. Although the report was a little complicated and detailed first one eye and then the other the upshot of it all was that my eyes seemed to be in the clear without any tell tale signs of retinal damage to incipient macular degeneration which is what occurs if diabetes rages through one’s system and is left untreated. As well, I was exchanging text messages with my daughter-in-law and my son himself once he managed to access the (free) NHS wireless system afforded by the hospital.It looks as though there is no consultant available to check whether or not his oxygen levels have returned to a level where he is deemed fit for discharge so, versed in how hospitals work, he is now semi-resigned to the fact that he may have to stay in place until next Monday unless he does what he threatened to do and take his own discharge.

On the international scene, Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have spoken directly for the first time since 2022 – a move that has prompted anger from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It could be that the Scholz who is facing re-election has a vested interest in trying to get the Ukrainian crisis ‘solved’ but it seems quite likely that a combination of the Germans and the Americans are going to force Ukraine to accept a peace where some land is ceded to Russia (admittedly Russian speaking) in exchange for a negotiated peace. The view from the Ukraine is that Putin has got all that he could have wanted – no doubt, the Sunday newspapers will contain some more in-depth analysis.

Late last night, we received some rather unpleasant news that our son was in hospital. It appeared that he had been suffering from bronchitis like symptoms (like his wife) and when he eventually struggled to the doctors, it was decided that he should go straight to A&E. There he received some antibiotics, oxygen and a normal ECG check but as his oxygen saturation levels were too low, it was decided to keep him in hospital overnight (and probably for as long as it took to get his oxygen levels back to normal) So this is always a worrying time when relatives are in hospital but trying to get discharged on a Friday afternoon can often be problematic (as I know to my cost) and so we may have to wait until Monday until a consultant or someone who can act on his behalf can make a distinction whether to discharge or not.

The news from the other side of the Atlantic has caused some jaws to drop. Donald Trump is putting together his top government team and we have had surprise after surprise. The first came when a relative unknown, a reporter on Fox News was appointed to Defence Secretary in charge of the most powerful military force on the planet. The candidate has served in the Armed services as part of a routine young adulthood but has never exercised any degree of military rank and this caused eyes in Washington to roll in astonishment. The next announcement was that John F Kennedy, Jr had appointed as Health Secretary. JFK Jr has stood as an independent Presidential candidate and then withdrew in favour of Bush, and he has the most bizarre and unorthodox of views arguing that vaccines cause autism, that HIV does not cause Aids and then fluoridation in drinking water should be abandoned. The thought that a politician with these eccentric and bizarre views will be in charge of America’s health programme is almost beyond belief. And hen the final straw came when an extreme MAGA politician, Gearst who has been accused of multiple crimes including illegal sex with a 17 year old minor has been appointed as Justice Secretary (and will be in a position to abandon all of the legal cases against him as well as excusing all of the rioters who attacked the Capitol building four years ago) Of course, these appointments have to undergo approval hearings in the Senate and although it is rare for nominations to be overturned, these appointments are so extreme that moderate Republicans might rebel and refuse to endorse the nomination. It could be the case that Trump is involved in a ‘game of chicken’ putting up nominees who are ultra loyal to him but with no particular competence to flush out those Republicans in the Senate who are ‘for him’ and who against.

Yesterday morning was one of those where I needled to assist the single carer to get Meg up and ready in the morning. Although the carer is relatively new and to some extent inexperienced, she seems to be a quick learner and to like attending to Meg (despite a sit a week ago when Meg went into one of her agitated states) The carer and I made a good team this morning but Meg showed some signs of entering an agitated state again so I gave her a pill which sometimes helps. Then another carer arrived to do the sit whilst I do the weekly shopping but things did not run smoothly. Although I had given Meg a special pill half an hour before the carer arrived, it did not seem to have much effect and when it was time for me to go shopping Meg was in a truly agitated state (and did not recognise me either) She calmed down a smidgeon and then I went and raced around the shopping as fast as I could do, actually returning within an hour – nonetheless, Meg had proved to be very agitated and somewhat aggressive in my absence so the care worker, despite her best efforts to keep entertained with teddy bears, books, soothing music and all of the other things that we try on occasions like this, had unfortunately had a very hard time. Upon my return we wheeled Meg into the kitchen whilst I unpacked the shopping and eventually got Meg to calm down a little and enter a type of doze.

When Meg and I go on our little ventures down the High Street, as we did yesterday, I often pop into the charity shops to see if anything takes our fancy. I tend to make a beeline for the ceramics/pottery/kitchenware shelves where experience suggests that I might find something to my tastes. When Meg and I moved into our present house some seventeen years ago, we treated ourselves to a full set of good Denby crockery and tableware but our experiences have not been entirely happy. For example, some of the Denby has chipped although we cannot remember giving it a knock and some of the glaze on the interior seems to be breaking down as if we make tea in the cup, which we often do, then the resulting caffeine stain is proving difficult to remove. So we are of the view that the quality of Denby has drifted down over the years or perhaps we got a particularly bad production batch but certainly our own Denby ware has by no means fared as well as the set purchased by our son only a year or so previously. So our search for tea and coffee mugs has a utilitarian as well as an aesthetic element attached to it. Over the past few days, I have purchased seven pieces, each with a bit of provenance attached to it. The first piece I acquired was a cup of white porcelain decorated with stylised blue flowers which was an elegant little piece and when I saw a second exemplar of the same a few days later, I bought that to be a companion. The base of the cup reveLS the name ‘Nicola Spring’ who according to the website is a well known designer of kitchenware and artefacts and it could be that the pieces I have acquired are actually handmade. The third piece I might be describe as a whimsical choice is a white porcelain piece decorated with some grazing sheep which rather took my fancy and to accompany this I also bought a porcelain mug decorated by hedgehogs. When I last visited my suburban (i.e.not town centre shop) of AgeUK I saw a collection of miscellaneous cups and mugs and actually bought quite a wide and deep mug for 10p as it has the advantages of being quite wide and deep so is particularly easy to clean of coffee residues as I can fit the whole of my fist inside it. Now I come onto my sixth piece which was a piece of porcelain by the famous PortMeirion pottery made for the National Trust and decorated with garden herbs where the quality speaks for itself. My seventh and final piece I found in a trolley load of goods donated to the Salvation Army and not yet priced up. The piece I bought was one of those wider at the base than at its top and decorated by a deep blue glaze which gives rise via a way line do a lighter blue – subsequent investigations of this mug on a website indicates that this is meant to represent an ocean or seascape. The manufacturer was a specialised maker called Abbeydale and one of their specialisms (of which my mug was an exemplar) is the utilisation of a ‘reactivated glaze’. This glaze relies upon the fact that the various minerals and compounds in the composition of the clay together with higher kiln temperatures result in each piece being produced being unique i.e. no two pieces will ever look exactly the same as each other. For this reason, some cognoscenti hunt out this type of pottery because it adds a level of uniqueness to each individual piece thus making a change from the mass production style of pottery where every piece is meant to be identical. This, actually, is my favourite of the recently acquired purchases and one can see why they end up in the charity shops. They are often made in small and specialised craft potteries and small production runs. For this reason, they are often marked in stores such as Marks and Spencer as ‘one offs’ and would be purchased as a gift item for somebody rather than being purchased as part of a complete pottery set. As these are priced at anything from £12-£20, you can almost hear people saying that they are not going to pay that kind of price for a single piece of pottery and hence I imagine that they remain on the shelves unsold until they are swept away and find their way into into the charity shops. But here one has to shop with a certain degree of discernment because right in the middle of the pedestrian, utilitarian and sometime it must be said the downright tawdry, one finds a complete gem and I think it takes a discerning eye to spot these items of real quality. I suspect that antique dealers are the same for they can sweep their eyes over a load of old rubbish until something remarkable catches their eye and they purchase at a bargain price but later sell on at an inflated one.

Yesterday morning we had nothing in particular planned but after we had got Meg up and breakfasted, we made a trip down into town. The weather was still pretty cold but not quite as cold as the day before so the walk down was relatively pleasant. We we were delighted to bump into one of our friends who was engaged in some gardening and to learn that another friend, and near neighbour, had received some medical results that had been received the day before and that indicated that nothing had actually worsened. We were pleased to hear this news and then proceeded along the High Street where we bought some cosmetics and relieved an ATM of some of its cash. Then we made our back up the hill to have a warming cup of soup when we returned home, after which the carers called for their pre-lunch call. We had some fishcakes for lunch although the amount of actual fish inside them these days is so miniscule that having thrown away the batter, not much actual fish remains. This afternoon I contemplated getting the front lawns cut but this may have to wait until tomorrow when I have to ensure that Meg is in her wheelchair and can accompany me outside. So our afternoon TV viewing, we watched the concluding episode of ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ with the final scene being where Angel and the sister of the just-hanged Tess make their way up West Hill outside Winchester which is where the University of Winchester at which I used to teach is located. Following on from this on the BBC iPlayer was a film called ‘Jude’ which said it was based upon the Hardy novel of ‘Jude the Obscure’ but it seemed to depart quite a lot from the novel as I remember it. The film was ‘dark’ in the extreme with the couples three children ending up dead whilst Jude and Sue were wracked with remorse and guilt, feeling the killing of the children was God’s vengeance for the fact they were living with each other as man and wife whilst actually being married to other partners. To be honest, we were pleased when the film had ended and the two carers came along to give Meg her teatime call and the two of them will return later in the evening to put Meg to bed.

We heard on the news yesterday that Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, was going to introduce a policy of grading hospitals so that they form a League Table and, presumably, those at the bottom of the pile would have their Chief Executives removed or be subject to other forms of sanction. More than 120 NHS trusts in England will be scored on their waiting times, patient care and spending in what is being labelled as ‘Football League’ type reforms. Members of the general public might think that this is a good idea to improve the NHS and it is evidently something that politicians, even Labour ones, think is a good way to inject a degree of managerial efficiency. But it is important to say that this type of measure has been tried before and did not yield the anticipated results. In the late 1980’s there was an idea to rank all hospitals and this policy was carried out. But I remember that, at the time, a hospital possibly in Lancaster was ranked as the lowest in the country when it came to outpatient waiting times (a research interest of mine) But when reporters descended on the lowest ranked hospital in the land, the patients that they interviewed were satisfied with the level of service that they received and evidently did not have the ability to attend any hospital other than their local one. But this league table approach has been found to be severely wanting because of what social scientists interested in quality management have termed the curse of the ‘perverse indicators’. When targets like these are set, then managers will do whatever is necessary to achieve the target and other important but unmeasured work will either not get done or be degraded. So the setting of targets can, and often does, drive down the overall quality in the system as senior managers reorient their organisations so as to meet the guidelines. The whole of this type of debate formed the backdrop to a series of papers which formed the backdrop to my PhD (on the subject of quality in the health service) so this explains my interest in the subject. But another question raises its ugly head, which is why this approach which had been tried before and shown not to work was being re-implemented? I think some of the must lie in the time scale of changes and those who implement them. It is now some 35 years since this approach was tried before but those responsible for implementing and pursuing the League table policy of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s will have retired. So there is no organisational memory that this approach has been tried before with minimal impact. Was there anybody in the Department of Health (or even the Labour Party) to tell Wes Streeting that this previously tried policy had not really worked. Did Wes Streeting even know this approach had been tried before – and, if he did, did he commission any papers to inform him why the policy had failed and what lessons should be learnt for the future? i think there are some parts of the Whitehall machine that attempt to learn from past mistakes (and I suspect that the Defence ministry is fairly good at this as it attempts to learn the lessons from each conflict in which the country is engaged) But, if I were to make a guess, it would be that there is a failure of collective memory in the Department of Health and so we shall probably go ahead and repeat the mistakes of the past.

The media has been full of the meeting between President Biden and President-elect Trump as they meet in the White House to agree and cement the transition details between one presidency and the next. At least Biden extended a cordial welcome to Trump if only for the sake of the cameras, a courtesy that Trump did not extend to Biden four years ago at the change of presidency. The transfer of power in the UK political system is swift and sometimes even brutal with removal vans drawing up at the back entrance to Downing Street the day after an election but the USA takes a lot longer over this process until the inauguration in January.

Two of our regular carers called around in the morning at 8.00am and although Meg was still sleepy, we got her up and dressed without any delay. Being a Tuesday, we were looking forward to seeing some of our regular Waitrose friends and, indeed, we did meet up with two of them including our friend who had experienced the unfortunate fall in Waitrose the other day. Over coffee, I ensured that I had got her telephone number so that I could send her a couple of useful telephone numbers, one being the contact that we have for the ‘LifeLine’ alarm worn around the neck and activated in the event of a fall and the other being my contact within the ‘Falls’ team itself. No sooner had we got back from our coffee break down the hill, I was met with the representative of the ‘LifeLine’ organisation because given that Meg is no ambulant and therefore in danger of falling, we are discontinuing this particular service as we need it no more. As Tuesday is a ‘sit’ day, one of the newish carers that knows Meg quite well was sitting with her whilst I made a lightning visit to a local shop. By now it was getting rather late for the fishcakes that I had planned so I made a ‘quickie’ lunch from a tin of chunky vegetable soup, a baked potato and one leek enhanced by an onion sauce. During the course of lunch preparation, I received a telephone call from a local physio who thought he could pay us a quick visit to give up some advice on Meg’s legs. He turned up at about 3.00pm and we had a very useful discussion with him. He confirmed that the recently ordered Riser-Recliner chair would be invaluable and in the short term gave us some invaluable advice how to keep Meg’s legs in the correct orientation.The source of my concern was that if Meg sat in a wheelchair for about 4-5 hours in the afternoon, this might ‘set’ Meg’s leg at a 90 degree angle and, for this reason, we put Meg into an armchair and a small, low height stool, to keep Meg’s legs at a less acute angle. The young male physio was very helpful and he explained some of the basic physiology involved and we were relieved to ascertain that Meg’s knees joints were not themselves being adversely affected. The physio was satisfied that we were doing the right things and gave us some simple stretching out exercises for us before Meg is moved into the hoist.

There was some unexpected economic news this afternoon after the Bank of England had made a cautious cut in interest rates the other day. A string of big lenders have announced interest rate hikes one after the other – as the mortgage market takes a turn for the worse. HSBC, Santander, Nationwide, TSB and Virgin have all announced hikes today and in recent days. It follows a budget that analysts fear could prove to be inflationary. There is concern extra costs for businesses, such as the minimum wage uplift and the national insurance rise, could be passed on to consumers. Last week the Bank of England cut the base rate to 4.75% but struck a cautious note, saying further rate cuts would be ‘gradual’ – prompting markets to further scale back forecasts for another cut in December. So I imagine that this news is unwelcome to the government and I wonder to what extent it was either modelled or anticipated. Donald Trump’s latest appointment to the person who is going to look after trade negotiations i.e. tariffs, seems to be one of the most protectionist it is possible to imagine so, once again, I expect some shudders and frowns deep within our own Treasury who are having to digest this news. With the various cries of distress that are coming from both farmers, sections of the hospitality industry and private schools after the last budget, I still think it is an open question whether there is genuine economic distress here or just significant groups crying ‘wolf’ and that the changes to taxation levels are capable of being absorbed.

The political landscape is full of two stories this morning. One of these is the fact that the Assisted Dying bill has just been published, ready for a free vote in the House of Commons later this month. Speaking absolutely personally, I have no objection in principle to this bill but a massive misgiving in practice. Were our hospice movement to be in good financial health so that there was no count that anyone who requested help could readily receive it, then I would feel happier were the bill to pass.(Incidentally, the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, seems to have exactly the same position) However, I feel that this bill is unlikely to pass through the House of Lords which may feel that its view needs to be heeded whatever majority might be in the Commons. At this stage, I would predict that the bill would narrow pass in the Commons on a free vote but fail in the Lords.

When I heard the discussion surrounding the Archbishop of Canterbury, Britain’ foremost prelate, I was not in the lest surprised when his resignation came when it did. When I heard the criticism levied against him – that he had known about the Smyth affair in which across five decades in three different countries and involving as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa, John Smyth QC is said to have subjected his victims to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological, and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.The Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned after a report found the Church of England covered up sexual abuse by a barrister.The independent Makin review into John Smyth QC’s abuse of children and young men was published last week. Although Justin Welby was by no means a party to the abuse, the charge against him is that he did not pursue with sufficient rigour the rumours that he was told about Smythe which turned out to be true. It is being said that whilst safeguarding issues are generally dealt with well at parochial (i.e. individual church) level, the problem appears to lie in the labyrinthine hierarchy of the Church of England.Indeed it is being said that several bishops ought to resign as they all had collective knowledge of the abuse taking place but did not take any real action , presumably thinking that they had to defend the integrity of the Church. The criticisms in the media the night before were trenchant and I thought to myself that Justin Welby was a ‘dead man walking’ and I think this view was widely shared in the House of Commons itself.

Yesterday had been quite an eventful day. The two carers came on time at 8.00am which was the normal start time and we got Meg ready quite expeditiously. I knew that the car was due to be collected by the garage who give it its annual service so I received a telephone call to confirm that I was expecting them, which I was. After the car had been collected and Meg and I were breakfasted, we made our way down to our ‘Lemon Tree’ cafe although, in all honesty, I did not feel like much of a trip this morning. But the effort paid off because after our coffee break, I called in at the AgeUK furniture store on the High Street – not that I was in need of any more furniture. But having chipped and broken one of my favourite coffee mugs, I was on the lookout for a replacement. I did buy two mugs actually because they were made of porcelain, one with a hedgehog design and the other with sheep! But for some reason, they had been discounted down to 50p so were not to be ignored for this quality, They also had a rail of clothing further discounted and I found a fine merino-type long sleeved pullover in a deep bottle green colour. Being a ‘medium’ size I thought this might be too small and I wondered if I might find something that I could wear as a supplement to my pyjama top to keep me warm during the night. But having got this piece home and tried it on, it is actually too good for night time use so I am wearing at the moment and will continue to wear it as normal day time clothing. Also, although it had been put on the rail this morning, it had been discounted down to £1.50 so this was snaffled up as well so the top and my two coffee cups still came to less than the price for a cup of coffee. Earlier, I had popped into the Salvation Army shop and purchased quite a pleasant porcelain mug. But when I got it home, I discovered it had the attribution of ‘Nicola Spring’ and is very probably hand-painted porcelain pottery. Consulting the web, I find that ‘Nicola Spring’ seems to be a whole range of hand designed and beautiful household goods and so I seem to have found myself another bargain. This is now going to be my regular ‘afternoon tea’ cup as I now have a choice of porcelain mugs. The trip down to town was also punctuated by a brief chat with one of our friends from down the road and another, more extended. chat with one of my fellow Pilates class mates. She indicated that they were sort of missing me and wondering how I was getting on but I gave my friend the briefest of updates so that she could pass it on to the other class members. She noticed the changes in Meg almost straight away as it is a few months since we all last met when she paid us a visit in the afternoon. We knew that today we were due to have a visit from a physio and a representative from the firm that supplied specialist ‘riser-recliner’ chairs to the NHS and they were expected at 2.00pm. However, we received a telephone call asking if they could the appointment forward to 12.45 to which they agreed but they actually turned up at 11.45 whilst we were still out. So they came back an hour later, coinciding with the late morning carers. Meg was hoisted out of her armchair and into the specialist chair that had been brought along to assess its suitability for Meg. The particular model they bought will seem to suit Meg’s needs perfectly so they are due to go ahead and order it although I think we will receive the mechanical rather than the electric model. But this new chair when it arrives in about 3-4 weeks time should give more lateral support to her body and is altogether more suitable than what we have at the moment where Meg needs supporting with cushions of various sizes and shapes.

After the ‘tea time’ care call has been made, Meg entertain ourselves with a cup of tea and some chocolate and then see what YouTube has to offer either in the way of comedy or music. Today, we were treated to a concert all of which we enjoyed. It started with a Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 followed by Bach’s Brandenburg No. 1 This was played by a very small orchestra only about 15-16 members on what appeared to be period instruments. I was pretty sure that I espied a couple of recorders (the full size ones) but I could not be certain as the mouthpiece looked like that of a recorder but I think it had some oboe-like keys to reach some of the lower notes. Then this was followed by Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 23 which is one of my favourites, the slow movement expressing such incredible sadness you can almost feel the tears. In fact I want this slow movement played at my funeral but to be followed on the way out by the third movement, which is full of vivacity and joy (had a bag of money arrived that morning?)

The British political elite are waking up the fact that for the next four years, they will have to deal with President-elect Trump (as he now is) Keir Starmer and David Lammie, the Foreign Secretary are hoping that the links they established with Trump and leading Republicans before the British election will pay off but it rather depends on what Donald Trump remembers of past adverse comments and whether he wants to play vindictive or not. The best British hope is that Trump’s rhetoric will gave way to the ‘art of the deal’ and the Americans might be open to the argument that a trade war between the USA and the UK serves no one’s interests. Several scenarios are apparently being ‘gamed’ within the Whitehall machine with the biggest unknown, apart from the tariff issue, as to how Trump will deal with Ukraine. From the Ukrainian perspective, there are some weeks (and money left) from the Biden presidency so that need to think hard about what can be done in the next nine weeks. One way or another, I have the feeling that Europe cannot let Putin be the victor in this context so all European societies may have to dig deeper for support. Just at the wrong moment from Ukraine’s point of view, the German government has collapsed and this will certainty be a bit of blow to the Ukrainians.

Many people regard Sunday as the one day a week when they can give themselves the luxury of a little lie-in but this was not for us. I had got to bed a little later than I had intended the previous evening because I set myself the task of renewing some halogen light bulbs in our kitchen ceiling which had failed to function so I purchased a new supply over the internet and started to fit them. This particular dated design is a bit fiddly, particularly in the ceiling because you have to squeeze a wire clip together with one hand whilst occasionally using the other to position the bulb. When I consulted the care plan, I noticed with some dismay that the allocated time for the carers was 7.25 this morning rather than the more usual 8.00am. But it was a carer we know quite well and she helped to recruit her sister into the care agency so the two of them were allocated to work with them this morning. They both attended a Catholic primary school in Redditch so we swapped some jokes and experiences about the education we had received in the hands of catholic Irish nuns. I particularly remember the story which some people swear is true that the girls taught by catholic nuns are forbidden to wear black patent leather shoes lest young men who are in the vicinity will be driven mad with lustful thoughts by observing the reflections of the knickers the girls are wearing. But a bit of research indicates that this ‘story’ has quite a lot of provenance because I think the story as a whole dates from a novel ‘Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up’ published in 1975 by author John R. Powers which was subsequently adapted into a Broadway musical and a screenplay. I think I now appreciate more and more that novels and other sources have to be located in a particular time period which means they capture what used to be known as ‘Spirit of the Age’ If John Powers wrote the novel when he was 30 then he would have been born in 1945 and been exposed, perhaps to Catholic nuns as infant school teachers from the early 1950’s onwards. This was an era of intense social and political conservatism, epitomised by the McCarthy investigations into ‘Communist’ infiltration of the media and hence the ‘Committee on UnAmerican Activities’ which hounded some individuals of a more liberal disposition throughout the 1950’s. So perhaps the novel and the subsequent play drew upon the education that the author experienced and perhaps the story got embroidered a little in the telling of it. After we had breakfasted, I phoned our University of Birmingham friend and we met up for our routine Sunday morning coffee in Waitrose. When I descend the hill, I tend to have Mozart playing to accompany me but I have to remember to turn off the app as soon as I enter the store lest I offend anybody. Meg and I and our friend observed the two minutes silence for Remembrance Day but same of the younger clientele did not. But I would have thought that a general announcement to observe the two minutes silence would not have been inappropriate.

Notwithstanding this story and others, we got ourselves in front of the TV in plenty of time to watch what the politics programs were making of the consequences of a second Trump election. The view is almost universally held that we will be living through a very uncertain period with a mass of questions that touch on us personally. In the international sphere, one big question is whether Ukraine is going to be supported or thrown to the (Russian) wolves but more importantly, what is going to happen to tariffs? Some are hoping that the UK might be exempt from some of the tariffs which Trump is threatening to unilaterally impose but to avoid these (and the subsequent adverse effects on the UK economy) is going to call for some nifty footwork and back room diplomacy between the British and their US counterparts. This is difficult in the short term because the Trump team is still in the process of being selected and the new administration does not legally take office until after the inauguration in late January.

As it was Remembrance Sunday, we watched for the third time the incredible film ‘Warhorse’ and has several remarkedly emotional moments within it. I wondered whether the story was true but it is and it is not at the same. It is true that the Steven Spielberg film is largely fictional but there was a horse, originally bred on he Isle of Wight (although it becomes Devon in the film) named ‘Warrior’ and it appears that ‘Warrior’ did experience many of the events depicted in the film and was indeed brought back to England. And the death toll was fearsome. During the war, the British had approximately one million horses and mules on the Western Front. Approximately half a million died and tens of thousands were injured. (Some estimates are higher.) Those horses that survived were sold on the continent after the war (often for food). But the estimates of the number of horses that dies vary enormously. Estimates of the number of horses killed in World War I range from 484,143 to 8 million. According to the RSPCA 484,143 British horses, mules, camels, and bullocks die but according to Allied sources, 8 million horses from all armies died. Horses were used to transport wounded soldiers and weaponry. The need for transport animals increased as the war continued, and there was a shortage of facilities to maintain their health. After the war, many horses that survived were sold for their hides, fat, or meat. The Animals in War Memorial in Hyde Park, London, commemorates the animals that served and died in British military service. Horses were killed by a variety of factors, including: shellfire and gas attacks, extreme conditions, diseases, exposure, and starvation.

I came across an interesting quote concerning the Trump presidency from Macron, the French president. He is reported as saying that the international scene is populated by both herbivores and carnivores and the latter will devour the former in the normal course of events. I am not sure that Macron is correct in his interpretation of natural history but it is true that herbivores are big and slow moving (cows, elephants) whereas carnivores tend to be both smaller, nimble and quick. But the political metaphor is quite an interesting take upon contemporary world affairs and the future in the next few years looks uncertain indeed.

I must say that yesterday did not start off at all well. I was awoken by Meg at about 5.30 and she was evidently in the throes of one her agitated moods. I immediately got up and made us both a cup of tea and then gave Meg a pill which a doctor had prescribed several months ago and which sometimes can help in circumstances like this. It seemed to have some affect but the effect wore off quite strongly so I looked in my reference book which is the BMA ‘New Guide to Medicines and Drugs’ to find the recommended dose. This quite definitive book indicated a dose of between 20-75mg but the tablets I had in sock were only 10mg. Upon this, I immediately gave Meg another pill and, very shortly afterwards, the two young carers for whom I have a great deal of time came along to get Meg up for the day. Whether it was the pills, or the beneficial psychological effects of the two young carers I cannot say but we got Meg turned around and then we had our normal breakfast. In passing, I must say that two young carers in combination either at the start or the end of the day seem to have a good effect upon Meg’s morale and mood – the exact mechanisms of what is going on here, I cannot really say. But I will say that this particular pairing of a male and a female carer (one aged 22,m the other 17) are not boyfriend and girlfriend but work very with each other and enjoy coming here as well, so I am grateful for small mercies. I did actually give the male carer some risotto last night as a little treat as I know he enjoys it but it his family are not in the habit of preparing this as part of their normal cuisine. After this, we went down the hill and met with our 90 year old chorister friend but the other who had the fall during the week did not turn up. We were informed that she had a bad stomach upset after the fall and had spent a night in hospital (so that was two hospital visits in three days for her) so I obtained her telephone number from our mutual friend and will text or phone her a little later for a bit of moral support.

Whilst I was preparing the lunch which was just bits and pieces of leftovers thrown together into a stir-fry we tuned into a YouTube presentation of Puccini arias. I think it was a Japanese soprano who was featured and there were certainly no problems with her voice. But I always think of the Japanese, apart from their Sumo wrestlers, as having quite a slim and petite phenotype but this is not what greeted our eyes.I came to he view that the singer might have had a Japanese mother but a Soviet 1950’s style tank for a father, so well built was she. I felt that if she had been giving an outdoor performance then when she took her final bows at the end of the performance, it wold probably have blotted out both the moon and the stars. But we had a real treat in store for us later on this afternoon as on BBC they were broadcasting both ‘Swallows and Amazons’ followed by ‘Emma’ (Jane Austen) which was my set book for GCE ‘O’-level in 1961. The ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was well cast but this modern production renamed the ‘Titty’ of the original to ‘Tatty’ for reasons of sensibility. I thought I recognised views of Catbells and Derwentwater as the film was shot in the Lake District. I was correct in my recollection as although most of the film was shot around Coniston water(the lake where Malcolm Campbell eventually died when attempting to break the world water speed record’), there were some scenes shot in Derwentwater. The production of Emma did not quite live up to the other versions I have this of this classic – Emma herself is made a little ‘doe eyed’ which rather belies the sharp tongue that she displays in various parts of the novel. Nonetheless, we generally enjoy the BBC productions of Jane Austen and there must have been many versions made over the decades, each with a slightly different ‘take’ on the story line. As a young teenager, I remember reading the first line (‘Emma Woodhouse was young, rich and beautiful and did not have a care in the world’ is a précis of this first line) and as a 15 year old reading this, I felt my lip almost curl in derision thinking I did not really wish to ready any further. Incidentally, I suspect that Austen might have nuances concerning the understanding of early nineteenth social class structure and social mores that are lost on 15 year olds but that is another matter. I seem to remember that my sister had to read Trollope for her GCE’s and the same comments apply. I must say, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the episodes of Trollope when they were broadcast on the BBC but sometimes these things go in cycles or fashions. The ‘Barchester Chronicles’, of course, were first broadcast more than forty years ago but perhaps someone might dust them off the shelves and give them a new airing.

There are fears throughout the globe as to whether Donald Trump will make good his pre-election promise to unilaterally impose tariffs from the rest of the World. Trump has said he wants to raise tariffs – taxes on imported products – on goods from around the world by 10%, rising to 60% on goods from China, as part of his plan to protect US industries. But there are fears in foreign capitals about what this could do to their economies. Goldman Sachs has downgraded its forecast for the UK’s economic growth next year from 1.6% to 1.4%, while EU officials are anticipating a reduction in exports to the US of €150bn (£125bn). At the same time, there are hopes that close allies and ‘friendly’ nations might be spared some of these tariffs and I suspect that British officials are working feverishly behind the scenes to try to alleviate the impact upon the UK economy. Of course if Trump cuts off the supply of military weapons to the Ukraine, then other European countries are going to have to make the terrible decisions either to supply weapons (which they can ill afford) or face a situation where the Ukraine cedes some of its territory to Russia in pursuit of a peace deal and we all wonder what target Putin will strike next as he seeks to re-establish the Russian empire of old.

Today, we started off a little later than usual because I knew that our usual start time was to be delayed by 20 minutes and, in addition, I had been asked if I could act as he ‘second carer’ to help Meg washed and dressed this morning. This went according to plan and it was the day for our domestic help to call around which always lifts our spirits. Last week I had made her a gift of a rather nice cotton bed throw/blanket which actually goes superbly well in a room that she was refurbishing and she delightedly showed me a photo of how well it looked. She had also brought along some particularly nice savoury biscuits to try later on. After we had breakfasted, we were delighted to get a phone call from our University of Birmingham friend so we popped down the hill and spent a really enjoyable three quarters of an hour in his company. After we got home at lunchtime, I got to work preparing a smoked mackerel risotto as not only was it going to provide a lunchtime meal for the two of us but I had also promised our two carers who are coming along later this evening small portion of it for them to enjoy at home. In the afternoon, as we often do on a Friday afternoon, we enjoyed the edition of ‘Question Time’ first broadcast yesterday evening and this helped to dispel some of the gloom of the afternoon which descends so early in these November days. I have often thought of November as a month that just has to be endured because apart from the bonfire night celebrations at the start of the month, there is nothing else much to which to look forward. December is in a different category because there is always Christmas at the end of the month and, of course, once 21st is out of the way then the nights are starting to get a little lighter by a smidgeon each day. The carers this afternoon brought along a letter asking us to detail our Christmas requirements but in the case of Meg and myself, it is just ‘business as normal’ The care agency tries to spread out the Christmas work so that the care staff can spend as much time as they can with their own families which is quite understandable. As a teenager, I often spent Christmas day with my family and then to work in the hotel from about 6.00 in the evening until 2.00pm the following morning. As we did not have a TV in those days, I did not feel as though I was missing much anyway.

The full extent of Donald Trump’s victory in the race to the White House only became evident to me yesterday when I read some of the analysis of the election results in ‘The Times’ Apparently, in the small hours of the day after the election, the CNN lead presenter asked their data analyst to show on a screen all 3,243 counties of the United States and those counties in which Kamala Harris had gained more votes than Jo Biden four years earlier. (A county in the United States is approximately 100,000 voters or approximately the size of two constituencies in the British parliamentary system) To the astonishment of the CNN presenter, not a single county could be found (from within the 3,243) where Kamala Harris attained more votes than Joe Biden four years earlier. The presenter gasped in disbelief – but this is a dramatic illustration of the victory that Trump attained. There are two more reflections which I think are salient. Kamala Harris campaigned very heavily on the issue of the rights to an abortion which was a sharp dividing line between the Democrats and the Republicans. But I looked up how many women aged 15-44 had actually had an abortion during the current year and the rate was 11.6 per thousand, or in rounded terms some 1.2%. So Kamala Harris was chasing the votes of 1.2% of the female population whilst the other 98.8% were worried about real ‘Bread and butter’ issues such as how to put enough food on the table in the face of rising inflation.In other words, the pursuit of an important issue but one which affected only a minute proportion of the population meant that the Democrats took their eye off the ball and did not pay sufficient attention to the economic worries of most of the population. This was compounded by Harris herself who in a critical interview was asked how her policies would differ from those of Joe Biden but all that she could reply was she would continue with the Biden programme which did not address the concerns of ordinary people. There are important lessons for all democratic parties of the left including of course the British Labour party. One wonders how many are concerned with the minutia of the trans rights debates compared with managing to improve one’s housing situation or to struggle on a low wage in an insecure job. So here, Trump ‘cut through’ as the analysts are wont to say, and did address the concerns of ordinary voters in a way that the Democrats did not. Some analysts are even suggesting that there is a complete realignment of American politics such that the Democrats are seen of the parties of the elites and of privilege whereas only the Republicans connect with struggling families.

So far this autumn, we have had a pretty mild spell as there is a very stable high pressure system which is locking in the clouds which, in turn, is preventing some of the early frosts that we have at this time of year. When I wheel Meg down in her wheelchair, I always make sure that she has a thickish cardigan on as well as a rain and wind proof jacket. But to complete her ensemble, I put on a Manchester University scarf and our very heavy ex- Russian military blanket across her knees which would actually protect her from a downfall of rain were we to have one.Then an extra blanket goes on top and we are ready to roll. I always ensure that I have High Visibility Vest on over my leather jacket because I think that it helps car drivers to think twice when there is some doubt who is going to cross the road first. In general, I have found car drivers to be very considerate and a majority always stop and let me cross the road although there is always the minority that speed away.

Yesterday was the day when the USA election results gradually unwound throughout the wee small hours of the morning. The previous evening, I snatched a few hours in bed and watched the early predicted results roll in and it was evident that the Republicans were going to have a good night. It was only when I got up in the morning that I fully appreciated the extent of the Trump victory and, of course, Pennsylvania was flipped from Democrat to Republican after which Kamala Harris was evidently doomed. There are several thoughts that have occurred to me as the morning progressed. All of the analysts were saying that this was going to be an incredibly tight election and the result would not be evident for some days until even Friday or Saturday. Instead we have a situation in which the Republicans not only control the Presidency but have also gained control of both Houses of Congress (House of Representatives and the Senate) as well as the Supreme Court stuffed full of Trump nominees. Thus we have an almost incredibly dangerous situation which the framers of the American constitution tried very hard to avoid that all of the major organs of government be under the control of one political party. So we have a situation where, in addition to Presidential power, anything he proposes will receive the endorsement of the two houses of Congress as well as the Supreme Court which means that there is nothing to stop the most extreme or illiberal of legislative measures passing into law with no prospect of opposing it or even amending it for the better. One factor which stood out from the post mortem analysis that has been conducted throughout the morning is that once again, as is now almost traditional, the Republican vote was underestimated by the pollsters. If you look at the series of opinion polls carried out throughout the last few months, Kamala Harris was always about 1.0-1.5 percentage point ahead of Trump but we now have is, in round terms, a 5% gap between the share of the popular vote that Harris was predicted to achieve and what Trump actually achieved. Now in very round terms, a 5% gap is enormous in an electorate of 160 million and represent some 8 million Americans across the country who voted for Trump but who the pollsters did not identify. This means that across the 50 states of the USA, there were in each state some 160,000 Trump voters whom the pollsters did not identify but nonetheless ‘came out of the woodwork’ and gave Trump victory. Incidentally, the same sort of phenomenon is identified in the UK as ‘shy conservatives’ i.e. a tranche of people who never reveal their voting intentions to the pollsters but who nonetheless seem to emerge and to vote for right wing parties.There is also another very telling demographic statistic in that the Trump appeal extended as far as the Latino and black male populations in a way that the Democrats could not understand, let alone predict. In other words, the Democrats took the latino and black vote for granted and this cost them dear when they actually voted for Trump. The problem is that the Democrats thought of the latinos as a block whereas the older immigrant communities who had worked their way up and into American society may well have wanted to differentiate themselves from the recent arrivals from Latin America and not necessarily identify with them. Again, we have seen the same sort of ‘overlooking’ in the UK electorate where Boris Johnson exploited the fact that the white, male sections of society, not college educated were taken for granted by the Labour Party whereas Boris Johnson (in his time) and Nigel Farage manage to sweep into right wing voting. So now we have a president of the United States who is the oldest ever elected, a convicted felon and only person since the nineteenth century to be re-elected having once lost power. The world economy may look on with some trepidation as Trump has vowed to reintroduce tariffs which will usher in a period of isolationism and protectionism. We also have a whole series of legal judgements that have gone against Trump who is now in a position to pardon himself or to sweep away all legal actions against him. A lot of the post election analysis has also concentrated upon the fact that, in the end, it was not the abortion issue but the economy that held most sway with voters. After the pandemic, many voters did not feel that the economy had delivered for them and felt that inflation had hit hard in the past and was continuing to do so. Also I discerned from several ‘vox pop’ interviews that Trump had implanted the idea very successfully that he was a very successful businessman and there, by extension, knew better than Harris how a modern economy works. Anybody who has followed the Trump biography know this to be very wide of the mark but it is the perception rather than the reality, that hits home. I conclude after this soul searching that Republican voters are inclined to overlook all of Trump’s evident faults and to forgive his transgressions whereas Democrat voters did not have the same feelings towards their candidate who will soon, one presumes, disappear from the public view.

This morning, after we had absorbed some of the news of the election, Meg and I made a quick trip down to Waitrose to pick up a copy of our newspaper. There we did receive the good news that our friend who had fallen and cut her head in the toilet of the store would be returning this afternoon to pick up her mobility scooter which had been kept safe for her overnight. This was good news for us but we also learnt that she had lain on the toilet floor for a whole two and a half hours before the ambulance actually arrived. For lunch, I tried an experimental dinner which one of our carers said she prepared for her children and they loved it. It involved heating up some mackerel fillets in the oven and then serving them on a bed of egg fried rice which she prepared herself. I was not quite sure how to do this but I fried an onion, scrambled the egg into it and then adding rice to the mixture. I used Arborio rice but perhaps I should have used a long grain white rice instead. But the results were pretty pleasing as well as tasty so perhaps I shall refine my technique and cook this dinner again.