{"id":8352,"date":"2026-06-18T15:57:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/?p=8352"},"modified":"2026-06-18T15:57:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:57:38","slug":"thursday-18th-june-2026-day-2285","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/2026\/06\/18\/thursday-18th-june-2026-day-2285\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, 18th June, 2026 [Day 2285]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whether we have a lasting peace in the Middle East now depends upon the actions of Netanyahu and the Israeli government. Donald Trump seems to have lost patience with Netanyahu by calling him ‘f*<\/strong>g crazy’ and had in effect instructed him to scale back operations in Lebanon. It is very rare that I agree with a sentiment that Donald Trump utters but I do agree with his observation that ‘you do not have to bomb the whole of an apartment block (and kill many civilians) when you are pursuing one Hezbollah fighter’ So Netanyahu can press on and risk American wrath and possible withdrawal of American support or he can fight on Lebanon potentially putting the whole peace process at risk. The world is almost holding its breath to see what might actually ensue. The country may well be consumed with World Cup fever later on in the day when England play their first match against Croatia in Dallas. Most big footballing nations are desperate, if not to win as to not actually lose, their opening match as was evident the other day. The mighty Spain actually drew their match 0:0 against the miniscule Cape Verde islands which are off the coast of Africa and have a population of about 1\/2 million and an area the size of Cornwall. \u00a0Their goalkeeper made a series of really impressive saves and thus helped his country pull off the most incredible draw. The evening before Senegal had the better of France in the first half of their match against France who then ‘woke up’ and cruised onto an eventual victory. I did not think that this World Cup would seize my attention but sometimes the most unlikely of contests can produce some intriguing and unpredictable results which adds to the fascination of the whole competition. Although the day is starting off gloomily, it should be a conventional mid-week day in which I will pay a visit to the Methodist Centre where I can always find people with whom to chat followed by my weekly shopping which I now do when I know that the supermarket of choice (Aldi) is fairly quiet. These days, apart from when I have days out with my American friend, I am settling into a routine in which I generally engage in some sort of activity in the mornings followed by a lunch and main meal in the middle of the day followed by a doze and perhaps some light gardening. Yesterday, I watched Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart in their podcast on YouTube<\/em> (‘The Rest is Politics’) in which Rory Stewart in particular was informing us how the mood in America was one of complete isolation and almost complete indifference to what was happening in the rest of the world. He was saying that even opponents of Trump did not fully know, or even care that much, about the suffering caused in the rest of the world and the economic price that many countries (including the UK) are having to suffer to pay for the Iran conflict and although there is some impact on petrol prices at the pumps, the American oil industry has been transformed in recent years. The United States relies heavily on shale oil and hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which have propelled the nation to become the world’s largest oil and natural gas producer. This ‘shale revolution’ uses horizontal drilling and fracking to extract petroleum trapped in deep shale rock, fundamentally altering domestic energy markets. So to the average American, the Middle East (and the rest of the world) has diminished in strategic importance and this, according to Rory Stewart, helps to explain, at least in part, American indifference to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking about the extremely positive reaction to the distribution of stems of deep red, scented roses to my fellow Pilates class mates yesterday, I thought I would continue in a similar vein together. Most of the roses on this rose tree\/bush ave now been cut but I managed to cut off 5-6 more stems  and then cut off the lower leaves and wrapped the bottom of the stems in tin foil. Then it was off into town and I picked up a copy of my newspaper before heading off to the Methodist Centre.  distributed the roses to those serving the coffee one of whom I know very well as she used to attend our church and knew Meg well. The other roses I distributed to those on the chatty table after which I left to go and do my weekly shopping. After this was unpacked, I set about preparing lunch which was going to be some quiche which I had previously defrosted. I thought I would experiment with a new type of accompaniment and so I prepared the following. Firstly, I cut off some florets from a head of broccoli (calabrese) which I cut into quite small little portions, even slicing their stems into thin slices. Broccoli  is said to contain a very good quantity of micronutrients many of which might be degraded in the cooking process so I wanted to keep the broccoli raw. To this I added a tomato cut into small sections and an onion diced small. Then I doused this mixture in a good dollop of honey and mustard sauce which I had just bought from the supermarket. I would rate the overall effect as crunchy and pretty tasty and would rate it as quite a successful little culinary adventure giving myself some 7-8 marks out of 10. After lunch, I popped outdoors to give my lavatera a little more pruning and I also swept my back path, taking particularly care to et rid of the moss which the rain brings down from the roof and which can leave a nasty black stain if not removed immediately. Later on in the afternoon, I am due to meet my American friend in the park for us to walk a couple of circuits together hoping of course that the threatened showers do not interrupt us. Later in the evening, we have the England vs. Croatia football match in the World Cup and this is going to be played in the sweltering heat of Dallas, Texas. I always find that rather being swept away by the hype, I am convinced that England are going to lose their first match or at best draw. In this way, I am not disappointed by the outcome but am always open to being pleasantly surprised in the case of a victory. In football, as in other sports, the better team does not always win (if, for example, the opposing team scores a quick goal in break-away against the run of play)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether we have a lasting peace in the Middle East now depends upon the actions of Netanyahu and the Israeli government. Donald Trump seems to have lost patience with Netanyahu by calling him ‘f*g crazy’ and had in effect instructed him to scale back operations in Lebanon. It is very rare that I agree with […]<\/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-8352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8352","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=8352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8353,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8352\/revisions\/8353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}