Many people regard Sunday as the one day a week when they can give themselves the luxury of a little lie-in but this was not for us. I had got to bed a little later than I had intended the previous evening because I set myself the task of renewing some halogen light bulbs in our kitchen ceiling which had failed to function so I purchased a new supply over the internet and started to fit them. This particular dated design is a bit fiddly, particularly in the ceiling because you have to squeeze a wire clip together with one hand whilst occasionally using the other to position the bulb. When I consulted the care plan, I noticed with some dismay that the allocated time for the carers was 7.25 this morning rather than the more usual 8.00am. But it was a carer we know quite well and she helped to recruit her sister into the care agency so the two of them were allocated to work with them this morning. They both attended a Catholic primary school in Redditch so we swapped some jokes and experiences about the education we had received in the hands of catholic Irish nuns. I particularly remember the story which some people swear is true that the girls taught by catholic nuns are forbidden to wear black patent leather shoes lest young men who are in the vicinity will be driven mad with lustful thoughts by observing the reflections of the knickers the girls are wearing. But a bit of research indicates that this 'story' has quite a lot of provenance because I think the story as a whole dates from a novel 'Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up' published in 1975 by author John R. Powers which was subsequently adapted into a Broadway musical and a screenplay. I think I now appreciate more and more that novels and other sources have to be located in a particular time period which means they capture what used to be known as 'Spirit of the Age' If John Powers wrote the novel when he was 30 then he would have been born in 1945 and been exposed, perhaps to Catholic nuns as infant school teachers from the early 1950's onwards. This was an era of intense social and political conservatism, epitomised by the McCarthy investigations into 'Communist' infiltration of the media and hence the 'Committee on UnAmerican Activities' which hounded some individuals of a more liberal disposition throughout the 1950's. So perhaps the novel and the subsequent play drew upon the education that the author experienced and perhaps the story got embroidered a little in the telling of it. After we had breakfasted, I phoned our University of Birmingham friend and we met up for our routine Sunday morning coffee in Waitrose. When I descend the hill, I tend to have Mozart playing to accompany me but I have to remember to turn off the app as soon as I enter the store lest I offend anybody. Meg and I and our friend observed the two minutes silence for Remembrance Day but same of the younger clientele did not. But I would have thought that a general announcement to observe the two minutes silence would not have been inappropriate.
Notwithstanding this story and others, we got ourselves in front of the TV in plenty of time to watch what the politics programs were making of the consequences of a second Trump election. The view is almost universally held that we will be living through a very uncertain period with a mass of questions that touch on us personally. In the international sphere, one big question is whether Ukraine is going to be supported or thrown to the (Russian) wolves but more importantly, what is going to happen to tariffs? Some are hoping that the UK might be exempt from some of the tariffs which Trump is threatening to unilaterally impose but to avoid these (and the subsequent adverse effects on the UK economy) is going to call for some nifty footwork and back room diplomacy between the British and their US counterparts. This is difficult in the short term because the Trump team is still in the process of being selected and the new administration does not legally take office until after the inauguration in late January.
As it was Remembrance Sunday, we watched for the third time the incredible film 'Warhorse' and has several remarkedly emotional moments within it. I wondered whether the story was true but it is and it is not at the same. It is true that the Steven Spielberg film is largely fictional but there was a horse, originally bred on he Isle of Wight (although it becomes Devon in the film) named 'Warrior' and it appears that 'Warrior' did experience many of the events depicted in the film and was indeed brought back to England. And the death toll was fearsome. During the war, the British had approximately one million horses and mules on the Western Front. Approximately half a million died and tens of thousands were injured. (Some estimates are higher.) Those horses that survived were sold on the continent after the war (often for food). But the estimates of the number of horses that dies vary enormously. Estimates of the number of horses killed in World War I range from 484,143 to 8 million. According to the RSPCA 484,143 British horses, mules, camels, and bullocks die but according to Allied sources, 8 million horses from all armies died. Horses were used to transport wounded soldiers and weaponry. The need for transport animals increased as the war continued, and there was a shortage of facilities to maintain their health. After the war, many horses that survived were sold for their hides, fat, or meat. The Animals in War Memorial in Hyde Park, London, commemorates the animals that served and died in British military service. Horses were killed by a variety of factors, including: shellfire and gas attacks, extreme conditions, diseases, exposure, and starvation.
I came across an interesting quote concerning the Trump presidency from Macron, the French president. He is reported as saying that the international scene is populated by both herbivores and carnivores and the latter will devour the former in the normal course of events. I am not sure that Macron is correct in his interpretation of natural history but it is true that herbivores are big and slow moving (cows, elephants) whereas carnivores tend to be both smaller, nimble and quick. But the political metaphor is quite an interesting take upon contemporary world affairs and the future in the next few years looks uncertain indeed.
© Mike Hart [2024]