The carers turned up a little late today and with a change in personnel but as the senior carer was the manager who puts himself on shift every now and again, I did not really mind. This morning proved to be an interesting one. It was the most beautiful day and we enjoyed the walk down into town through the autumn sunshine. As soon as we saw our friends, we were delighted to learn that it was the birthday of one of them and she treated us to some birthday cake which, by now, has become a tradition between us of one of the Waitrose chocolate offerings. I suddenly felt a pang of remorse at not having bought a birthday card for our friend so I shot off to another part of the store to buy a suitable offering. The one I chose is a traditional one for people of a certain age (like all of us) and was the visual joke of a couple of cows chatting in one field but one of them was displaying the hindquarters of a zebra and was saying to her companion 'I am not completely sure about that recent hip operation' Whilst chatting between us, I asked one of our friends whether she took her porridge pats and grind them a little smaller in a blender/grinder in order to make them simulate the finer packets of porridge oats that are sold in sachets for instant heating in the microwave. Our friend informed us that she did this regularly so I promptly went and bought a new supply of oats only to discover that the Waitrose 'Basic' version of oats was less than half the price of a neighbouring branded alternative. So when I got home, I located our Braun blender/grinder which I have not used for some time but will wait until Meg is asleep tonight and I will try some experimentation. I did try some in a pestle and mortar the other day but I am sure that there must be an easier and faster way of producing finer milled oats which will fit the breakfast bill. It is easy enough for us to add our own squirt of honey and so this has breakfast sorted out being the nutritional recommendation of some slow release carbohydrate to set oneself for the morning. On our way out of the store, we were presented with a beautiful bunch of roses which the relevant 'partners' put in our direction rather than throwing them away when they are past their sell-by date but they are always gratefully received. On our way up the hill, we noticed that a South African Asian lady that we know and have around for tea on one occasion was in the process of selling her house. We had not had the opportunity to have a chat for about a year now but she was in the process of moving to Droitwich, the Worcestershire town which is just down the road, as it were, and which we used to visit regularly when Meg could get into our car. We exchanged the news of what had happened to us in our respective lives before we each went on our way. Later in the morning, we entertained the carer who was coming for Meg's Tuesday 'sit' with a view of the video we had made of Meg giving a 50th anniversary wedding speech some seven years ago now and other reminiscencies of our student life in the 1960's. Then we made ourselves a quick lunch of a tin of chicken on some microwavable rice and petit pois which is one of those meals that one cam throw together in 5-10 minutes when the need arises. After lunch, it looked as though we were going to have a fine afternoon so we seized the opportunity whilst the weather was fair to get the front lawn cut. This will be the penultimate cut of the year and was certainly badly needed -I was amazed at how much the grass had grown in the last ten days.
One particular news item has caught my attention. This relates to the shooting dead of a young black man about two years ago and where the police marksman was charged with murder. The Crown Prosecution Service must have been convinced that there was a reasonable case to answer, not least because the car was travelling backwards away from the police marksman at the time of the shooting. When the verdict of 'not guilty' was announced, I was quite surprised given the details of the case that had been released. Members of the black community and some Labour MPs were going to demonstrate outside the Old Bailey later in the evening. However, there have been developments as the day has developed. Details have been released of evidence that the young black man killed by a police marksman was himself a gang member, had entered a night club recently in order to shoot presumably a member of a rival gang and himself had evidence of having recently fired on a gun on his own clothing. The issues that are raised are these. It appears that when the marksman fired the shot, he did not realise that in front of him was a member of a criminal gang but was justice actually served? The question remains whether the police did realise what was going on because the car that was used was also under suspicion as having been part of another criminal venture so in this very tangled story, do we have a case that the police did act too hastily in the original shooting and were then vindicated because, by their own account, it was a happy accident that they had actually got their man? This is a very tangled and confusing story but the fact that the Crown Prosecution Service itself took the decision to prosecute a serving police marksman must mean that they had considerable suspicions about the events and motivations of the whole case. Of course, we shall never get to the bottom of this. The details released today indicate that Chris Kaba was a core member of a notorious south London gang and accused of being the gunman in an alleged bid to murder a rival in a nightclub shooting days before he was killed. The 24-year-old's gang links, previous convictions and violent past can be reported for the first time after Metropolitan Police marksman Martyn Blake was cleared of murder and the judge Mr Justice Goss lifted reporting restrictions.
© Mike Hart [2024]