A little twist to the tariffs saga has just emerged. Democrats in Congress have questioned whether President Donald Trump and his allies may have acted improperly on his suggestion on Wednesday that it was a 'great time to buy' stocks. He made the comment shortly before announcing he was cutting back on some of his new tariffs - a move that made markets go up. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats 'need to get to the bottom of the possible stock manipulation that is unfolding before the American people'. He added: 'What if any advanced knowledge did members of the House Republican Conference have of Trump’s decision to pause the reckless tariffs that he put into place?' Jeffries said several members of congress will be 'aggressively demanding answers and transparency'. The White House denied that Trump was engaging in market manipulation and accused Democrats of 'playing partisan games.' But what is undoubtedly true is that any of Trump's coterie with some spare cash could have made a fortune knowing that the stock exchange was bound to score spectacular gains the minute that Trump announced his change of policy.
My tidying-up activities have continued apace yesterday. Our domestic help had changed her day this week from Wednesday to Friday, so I am interested in observing her reactions to the restoration and transformation of our dining room, which I now intend to keep in its pristine condition. I had a near disaster when moving a heavy box of my published papers caused one of the bookcase shelves to completely collapse, shedding its contents onto the floor. So an instant repair had to be made and some of the contents restored but I had the opportunity to throw away some computer software and out-of-date manuals. I have taken the opportunity, though, to purchase a new leather (actually artificial or PU leather) desktop mat to enhance the appearance of my desktop. It seems that a more modern concept is to utilise these desk mats which have the advantage of being able to dispense with a mouse mat, are wipe clean (in the face of the almost inevitable coffee spills) and are often two-tone colour reversible as well. The one I have purchased is a deep olive green and, I must say, adds an air of class to my desktop as well as dispensing with the mousepad. You can even buy an ultra-thin one which can be rolled up, held together with its own little leatherette clasp and then transported together with one's laptop if you were going to use a laptop in a friend's house (or even a hotel bedroom). It is the kind of little innovation which makes you wonder why it had not been thought of before but in the days when Meg and I used to stay in hotels, it would have proved to be a boon. The prospect lies before me of attacking some of my cluttered bookcase shelves one by one, but this does have the advantage of cutting a huge task into a smaller one as one can tackle it shelf by shelf on a daily basis. At some stage, I need to dispose of a lot of my academic books and did find an organisation that would have taken them off my hands for free (rather than just dumping them) But they wanted full bibliographical details on each book and the task of doing this for each of several hundred books would have been too daunting and time consuming and so it never happened at the time. However, it is a longer term prospect that I know must be done in the fullness of time.
Yesterday morning our domestic help arrived but I was a little fraught when she first arrived because the care agency had three staff reporting 'sick' and could I help? Actually, the morning call is pretty exhausting as Meg is quite a dead weight and still half asleep so getting her washed and dressed is no easy task. But the young female carer and I managed it all right but it took us the best part of 50 mins and it was not the best way to start off the day. But I took great delight in showing our domestic help our restored dining room which she can now clean so much more easily and also took the opportunity to let her have a set of beautiful dessert glasses that we originally had as wedding presents and only use on the most special of occasions. They had been recently washed before they had been put away and were therefore in a nice condition to gift but our help is very fond of this type of glassware so I know it is going to a good home. I have managed to tidy four shelves of the large bookcases I use as a quasi-stationery store so only two more to go. The weather continues to be glorious sunshine and I feel I should really be outside doing some much needed gardening but I also need to keep a watchful eye on the Meg. The weather is shortly to break down bringing some much needed rain to these parts. I need to re-seed some of the bare matches in our front grassed area, denuded somewhat by the activities of either one or several moles. I have the grass seed standing by in readiness but I do not want to dash out and sow it until I know that rain is imminent (as otherwise it might just provide food for the birds)
Having a baby is expensive, but it's even more so when you are spending almost £400 on items you don't need. According to data released last year by iCandy, UK parents are collectively spending £7bn on unused baby items, from cuddly toys to shoes.Almost 60% bought stuff that never got used - or were used less than twice - wasting an average of £379 in the first 12 months. Cuddly toys top the list - though they're super cute and look great in a baby's nursery, one in three UK parents who have kids under 10 (31%) admitted they did not use them.
© Mike Hart [2025]