Update 18
Last week I suggested I might pause these updates until I appear closer to the finishing line. Well that didn’t go down at all well, so thank you to the many of you who flattered me with some very warm responses. I’ll keep writing until no sense is being made.
I finished the course of Fluconazole on Tuesday but it has failed to clear my oral Thrush so this afternoon (Thursday) I asked the doctor if he could prescribe another course and happily he agreed. I should be able to get the tablets tomorrow. The idea of being able to appreciate food and wine again remains hugely attractive, however seemingly elusive. The consultation with the physiotherapist resulted in several proposed exercises including half that involved lying on the floor. Normally this would be of no matter, but in my present condition, once down there I see no prospect of my ever re ascending - happily there are others that can be done whilst sitting. With my trusty rollator I am now also ensuring that I walk at least 200 yards every day - not a lot I know, but it feels like an achievement to me.
The government appears (Thursday) to be floundering and hopelessly unable to control anything. I see that even former Chancellor George Osborne is asking why Kwasi Kwarteng is determined to wait until October 31st before he announces the big U-turn that Osborne sees as now inevitable. It begins to look as though Truss and Kwarteng failed to think anything through before they assumed office. They fired the Treasury boss Tom Scholar in order to bring in Truss’s mate Antonia Romeo. Now that’s been cancelled because it’s dawned on them (far too belatedly) that Romeo has no Treasury experience. It looks as though they also failed to consider how the markets might respond to their wholesale scrapping of tax increases together with those added tax reductions - what on earth did they think would be the response to such a huge imbalance? How did we end up with such a totally inexperienced PM and Chancellor? It beggars belief.
Almost inevitably, Friday sees KK’s demise. I’ve just watched Ms Truss’s press conference - possibly the worst I’ve ever witnessed - the woman is utterly useless - no conviction, no credibility, and almost certainly no future. How can she hope to survive when she’s demanded the resignation of the man whose only failing was to carry out the very policies on which she was elected? Who knows what Monday will bring.
I wonder how many of us have been watching the current resilience of the water industry? The regulator Ofwat has been dishing out huge fines in response to the many failures by companies to fulfil their obligations. Shareholders (mainly foreigners), who’ve sucked up millions in dividends, are being asked to provide additional funding whilst share prices are mostly trading below their price of twelve months ago. Surely a moment to consider bringing them back into public ownership and enforcing more serious efforts to reduce the quantity of detritus they pour onto our beaches and into our rivers?
We’ve been without use of our living room for the last ten days; our apartment consists of the two lowest floors of an 1841 Georgian villa and is subject to a grade II listing. As a result, double glazing proved out of the question, but eliminating the draughts did not. Over seven days, Omar and Steve virtually rebuilt the three huge sash windows that now fit perfectly. In an increasingly shoddy world, the high standard of their craftsmanship warmed my heart.
