It took me a little time to get going this morning because I was delighted to see my son who had been away for a few days helping to celebrate the 80th birthday of his mother-in-law in Watford and hence communing with his wife’s family. We both have a lot to catch up on and are having really interesting and busy weekends in prospect. My son is destined to go to a rather massive school reunion in York and some of his contacts will have been known to him for at least the last 45 years. I think the whole event is being coordinated by one of their fellow pupils from The Mount school who has been an events coordinator in the past so should know what she is doing. I am looking forward excitedly to my days away next Sunday (a birthday party of a dear friend) and my own the following day on Monday. All of this coincides with the one year anniversary of Meg’s death (which falls on 10th May) but which occasion will be alleviated by being in the company of long lasting and loyal friends. I have sometimes dipped into this blog to see what was happening a few days before Meg’s death and it was evident, even then that she did not have much longer on God’s earth. She seemed to be sleeping nearly all of the time as her bodily systems were gradually closing down and I recorded that all I managed to get her to ingest was a few drops of water delivered by a special little syringe that the nurses had supplied for me as an ‘end-of-life’ care kit. Although a sad occasion to look back upon, Meg seemed to drift away surrounded by family and friends and surrounded by as much care and affection as it was possible to imagine – so, in every ways, what Catholic theology taught to me as an adolescent boy as a ‘good’ death (although that is rather a meaningless concept when you are aged about 13-14 ). Later on today, I have the delights of a U3A curry Club to which look forward, followed by conversational Spanish on Thursday and a visit to Harvington Hall (followed by a birthday meal) with my American friend. So I have quite a busy few days ahead of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump’s latest scam (apart from perhaps an undignified retreat from the Iranian war) is to try to get $1 billion dollars to provide ‘security enhancements’ for his proposed glittering new ballroom extension to the White House. Trump has repeatedly says that the oft-quoted figure of $400 million would be provided by private funds but now the Republicans are trying to smuggle through a $1 billion subsidy via an obscure financial regulation. It is, of course, possible that some Republicans might break ranks at this point and be bold enough to vote against this latest Trump folly. I also saw the latest cognitive test that Trump supposedly ‘aced’ and it seemed so comparatively simple that I am pretty sure that individuals at the early stages of Alzheimer’s could pass it. Knowing that I was going to be away for some of the weekend, I had a very light shopping week this week but one luxury (or is it a necessity these days) is to buy a bottle of some of the highest quality Extra Virgin Olive oil available in my local supermarket. The brand that I bought comes out as reassuringly high in the independent tests of the ‘good’ olive oils and there are various things for which to look out such as to ensure that it is from an identifiable crop(i.e. not blended) with a crop number and a PDO (Italian Certificate of Origin) denomination. As well as using this olive oil in cooking, I also drizzle it on some toasted sourdough bread instead of butter and sometimes provide a bit of extra flavour by a smidgeon of tomato pur\u00e9e or some Marmite. So this is the information I have managed to glean about it. Castel del Monte PDO Terra di Bari Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a high-quality, cold-extracted oil from Puglia, Italy, featuring a distinct, fruity flavour profile dominated by the robust Coratina olive. It is known for its intense, spicy, and slightly bitter taste, making it ideal for drizzling on soups, pastas, salads, and grilled meats. The Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) ‘Terra di Bari’ indicates it is produced in the specific Castel del Monte region of Puglia, ensuring quality and traceability. The flavour profile is intense and fruity with notes of green tomato and artichoke, finishing with a peppery, bitter, and piquant sensation. It is predominantly made from the Coratina olive (around 90-100%), with smaller amounts of Peranzana or Ogliarola sometimes included. It is regarded as excellent for robust dishes, such as raw on vegetables, legumes, bruschetta, and red meat. Aldi’s ‘Specially Selected’ brand is highly regarded for its value and quality, and is often praised as a, ‘perfect low-cost alternative’. Although Thursday is the long anticipated date for the local elections and the polls generally close at about 10.00pm at night, the results will take a long time to trickle in. Some councils will not bother to start counting until the following day (Friday) in any case. So although I do admit to being a bit of an election junky, I cannot see the point in staying up too late to only get a partial result. Because of the fragmented nature of the vote, exit polls are not generally undertaken unlike a general election where the results of an exit poll is usually announced within seconds of the actual closure of the polls, I think that a goodnight’s sleep is probably a more sensible use of my time. But when the results are finally sufficiently comprehensive to make an informed analysis, the UK may find itself waking up to the death of the Conservative-Labour hegemony and a patchwork quilt of multi-party politics with Labour and Conservatives losing a lot of support to Reform (on the extreme right), the Greens in the left, the Liberal Democrats in the moderate centre as well as the nationalist parties in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with a smattering of independents (generally disillusioned Conservatives) for good measure. Once we take very low voter turn out into effect, this makes the actual mood of the nation even harder to discern apart from a general feeling of ‘None of the above’ in the minds of many voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It took me a little time to get going this morning because I was delighted to see my son who had been away for a few days helping to celebrate the 80th birthday of his mother-in-law in Watford and hence communing with his wife’s family. We both have a lot to catch up on and are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8248,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247\/revisions\/8248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}