This has been quite a full day what with one thing or another. But firstly, Meg slept very soundly last night for which I was well and truly grateful and although I did fall asleep in the chair downstairs whilst watching the news, I did crawl off to my own bed and have a reasonable night’s sleep. After. we had breakfasted, we tuned into the Politics programs where we are wondering whether, and how, Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor, is going to respond to the pay review body recommendation of about 5.5% for many of the public sector workers. She hinted this morning that the government may concede pay rises that are above the current rate of inflation but will still probably fall short of the 5.5% recommended by the Pay Review bodies. A decision on this is expected shortly and of course the perennial question of how the increase is to be funded. After breakfast, our Eucharistic minister called around as she does most Sundays and it was pleasant to see her. She has had rather a bad time recently because there seems to have been a spate of some distant relatives and some close family friends all dying and last week she had two funerals in two days. We empathised with her about this because sometimes these deaths do occur in clusters and a few years ago we had a terrible year in which many of our own close friends seemed to die within a few months of each other. Our son popped with a box of chocolates for Meg mid morning and, of course, we are always pleased to see him. I took the opportunity to update him with some of the details of how we are hoping to get some improvement in our pavement situation but he himself thought that he response of the County Council would be to do nothing on the grounds of expense. On the other hand, we showed the videoclip to our friend from church who called around this morning and she gasped in horror when she first saw it so who knows what might happen. I had to dash down the hill which I did at almost breakneck speed in order to pick up our Sunday newspaper and then immediately wheeled Meg back to the park and to our favourite bench. There we got deep into conversation with an acquaintance which we used to see quite regularly but who is now on crutches having had a knee replaced – before she was using a mobility scooter. We laughed and joked about our University of Birmingham friend who she used to assist on occasions finding a lady friend of the appropriate age and status but she has not seen much of him since he discovered his latest squeeze. We enjoyed a pleasant chat when our friend arrived but we both learned that a lady named Gloria that we used to see almost every day in the park in the height of the COVID peregrinations died about two weeks ago. We were saddened by this but not very surprised because the lady in question seemed to be carrying so much weight that it must have compromised her health status. In the past she had been an NHS manager and it is sad to think that although she kept going so gamely on her mobility scooter upon which she used to whizz around at the most enormous speed but now she has made her final journey. So we made our way home in the sunshine getting ready for the late morning carers. Thos morning being a Sunday, I was cooking a ham joint in the slow cooker and we dined on this with a baked potato and some spring greens. This was quite a delicious dinner as I always prepare a rich onion gravy in which I immerse some slices of the cooked ham. Today we had a special sweet that had been donated to us as our University of Birmingham friend had brought along a couple of raspberry compotes which were left over from a party he had attended with his new squeeze last night.
Just before lunch, we got a call from the care agency with a familiar request which is could I could assist as a second pair of hands at one of the scheduled visits for the day? One of the managers had put himself on duty fo late on this afternoon because I have put to him a proposition for a slight tweaking of Meg’s care package. As Meg does not enter a deep sleep approximately every other night, I am speculating whether we can cut down the time allocation for one of the daytime visits and then release some space for an additional visit to Meg late at night (about 10.00ish) to make sure is comfortable and that might assist in her developing a better sleep pattern. The manager is going to liaise with social services in order to ascertain whether this plan is both feasible and fundable but he, and I, think that it might represent a good ‘tweak’ to Meg’s existing care package. This afternoon as the weather was so fine, I sat Meg outside in her wheelchair whilst I got on with a cutting of the outside lawn which has escaped my attention for a week or so. We managed this all right and then came in to watch the end of a modern Peter Rabbit film which was amusing as far as it went but was not quite what a younger viewer might have expected.
An USA Senator has now called upon Joe Biden to resign together with 36 other prominent Democrats. One does the feeling that Joe. Biden will have to be pushed out of his candidacy one way or the other but one is left with the feeling that the stubbornness and pride of an old man is standing in the way of the best long term interests of the Democrats. Every day that Joe Biden hangs on is a day less to get a suitable challenger to make their way through the system. I think the Democrats, like our Conservative party of old, would prefer to have a new candidate ’emerge’ rather than have a public blood letting in their party conference which is to be held shortly. As a stop press, I can now confirm that Joe Biden has indicated he will drop out of the race and later on he endorsed Kerala Harris, his Vice President (which I feel personally would be a mistake)
© Mike Hart [2024]