All In A Day's Work

Tuesday. 10.20 a.m. It's still mild. Not sunny, although a slight chill. For late January, really mild. I thought it was cold enough for snow, but it doesn't seem cold enough for snow at the moment.

I have been to post the parcel for the grandsons. I drove towards Coffee Hall, but for some inexplicable reason, I missed the turn, thinking I had gone past the turning for Milton Keynes Academy. So I had to take the next right turn into Coffee Hall. A real maze of roads and with some manoeuvering, I managed to get to Garraways where One Stop is which has the post office inside.

I'm gradually transcribing my handwritten work onto word processing. The new MacBook is certainly making life easier in that respect. I have well over 1500 words written and it's going well. Not just transcribing, but making alterations as I go.

Wednesday. 9.40 a.m. I'm continuing with the transcribing. It's going well. A slow process, but it has to be done.

Yesterday evening I watched the first episode of 'The Green Planet', the latest David Attenborough natural history series on BBC 1. (Although I watched it via BBC iPlayer.) What can I say, except that it's beautiful and totally amazing, especially the use of time-lapse photography, to show plants growing? As usual, the final ten minutes is devoted to the people who make the show, answering a question I had as soon as I saw this footage, 'how do they do it?' This is the type of programme which only the BBC can make. The patience of the makers is totally incredible. It's a bit like animation, something else that intrigues me. A very slow process to get a mere couple of screen time. 

Oh dear! Boris Johnson is in a pickle. Nothing new there. He's something of a loose cannon. Partygate, which it has been christened, is all over the papers. There have been parties, both Christmas and the birthday variety, within the hallowed confines of Number 10 Downing Street during the lockdown in 2020. It would appear that there has been a certain amount of hypocrisy going on here. One minute our esteemed Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has been telling us to 'remain at home' during the pandemic lockdown, during the almost daily press conferences, the next he has been holding gatherings within Downing Street, one of which was in the garden. It has since been revealed that he has a birthday party held in his honour. There is a picture circulating where he has been presented with a rather tasty-looking birthday cake and he has a wide grin on his face. It seems that he cannot resist cake at any price. Even though he must have know that a gathering of his cabinet or other political allies within Downing Street would have been against the rules. 

Johnson is a combination of Mr Toad, Bertie Wooster, Billy Bunter and Winnie The Pooh!

There is an investigation going into Partygate. It does seem rather extreme, to say the least, and somewhat unnecessary. Will Boris be forced to resign over eating cake? Will he bite the dust? All rather like an episode of the rather brilliant 1980s political sitcom 'Yes Prime Minister."  Even something out of Oliver Cromwell's time as Lord Chancellor. Or perhaps something out of the works of Frans Kafka. Certainly comedic. 

So, what happens after the findings of the independent investigation are revealed? Will Boris be sent packing?

Just tell me, what did this woman Sue Gray investigate? Did she go round 10 Downing Street with a magnifying glass like Sherlock Holmes, looking for birthday cake crumbs? Did she find party poppers on the floor? The candles from Boris's birthday cake? The wrapping paper from presents? It all sounds so idiotic it sounds as if it's been fabricated by some sort of spoilsport.

'Cautiously Optimistic'

Wednesday. 6.25 a.m. 'Cautiously optimistic' was how Prime Minister Boris Johnson described how his infamous 'roadmap' out of lockdown which is supposed to be lifted on 21st June.  That is, unless there is a sudden rise in infections or something else to scupper the plans. He also said it about the Brexit deal that had been agreed with the EU. So, are we going to be celebrating our freedom from being bossed around? That is, if the by now more than a little bit famous Indian variant of the virus doesn't get a starring role over the next few weeks. 

Boris Johnson is a bit of what you'd describe as a 'loose cannon.' He is somewhat unpredictable and he doesn't work like any other Prime Minister I can think of.  The matter of making statements about letting dead bodies pile high rather than implementing lockdown, may or may not have been said by him. Also, the business around who paid for the alterations to his flat in 10 Downing Street, which  seems to have disappeared from being mentioned in the media, He gets away with all sorts of things that anyone else would be in court for. I see him as a combination of Winnie The Pooh, Bertie Wooster and Mr Toad, he of 'Wind In The Willows.'

As for the former political advisor to Number 10 Downing Street, Dominic Cummings, who has today been grilled by MPs in a Commons select committee about the Government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, or perhaps that should be, lack of it. He was removed from his post in No 10 back in November and it seems he is attempting to stab people in the back in a sort act of revenge, worthy of something out of a Shakespeare tragedy, such as Othello, with Cummings in the role of Iago. He's definitely not the sort of person you'd want as a friend. As someone said, 'with friends like these, who needs enemies?" He's stuck the knife into several government personnel, not least saying that Boris Johnson wasn't fit for the position of Prime Minister. Well, someone also said that 'you get the politicians you deserve', and in some respects that's totally true. It was American President Thomas Jefferson who came out with that one.

Today would have been Carol and my 14th wedding anniversary. It's no good dwelling on things and she would expect me to get on with my life, which I am, except that it's all been cancelled due to the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

I was up and out before 6 o'clock with Alfie this morning. A bit overcast and it looked as if it might rain later, but one hopes not.

I have received a letter from the Nephrology department of  Milton Keynes Hospital. I have no idea what nephrology is, but never mind. I'm always keen to learn new words, so his is another to add to my growing collection.  It's regarding the 'incidental finding of a small renal angiomyolipoma' in one of my kidneys when they did the ultra scan. I have no idea what an angiomyolipoma is, but, having spoken to my doctor on the telephone recently, it isn't malignant, like a cancer. When I first heard about it I did panic, really as a response to not knowing clearly what it was, because of my memories of when Carol was first diagnosed with bowel cancer. The letter goes on to say that I should have an ultra scan done every 4-5 years just to keep watching it and seeing how it behaves. I shall be discussing this further when I speak to my doctor on the telephone on 11th June.