21 January 2011

Having listened to the second of the One Day International cricket matches against Australia, from 3.00 a.m in the morning, I got up early and settled myself down in front of my laptop to watch England’s response to Australia’s modest 230 runs. England had started off against Australia extremely well and wickets tumbled early on leaving Australia 4 wickets down for 33 runs and 8 for 142,  then Marsh  went on to score 114 not out and in doing so clocked up  a record ninth wicket partnership with Bollinger. England never looked comfortable. Prior was first to go (1/12). Next both Strauss and Pieterson  were out, in successive balls, when England had scored 36 but despite having lost these early wickets they were always ahead of the required run rate but when Morgan was out when England only had 140 runs on the board and Yardy fell victim 7 runs later, the writing was on the wall and the result inevitable. About this time I lost my connect Internet connection due to the telephone engineers coming to sort out my problems so had to resort to the radio commentary. However I knew in my bones that was never going to be a nail biting finish so I was  not too disappointed in being unable to watch England’s inevitable demise. In the event, we were all out for 184. So, Australia are two up in this seven series of ODI’s

This was ostensibly a respite day off for Alice but she was delayed in her departure by Mouse, the donkey, who, despite all her recent ministrations from the vet and farrier, refused, or indeed was unable, to stand. When I’m in trouble on the floor Alice can generally use the hoist but, that is not an option  in the case of the donkey, so it was a further call to ‘Jane the vet’ who arrived early afternoon and seemed to be able to get her up without too much trouble. I just have the awful feeling that poor Mouse is not much longer for this world. Alice will be devastated as she loves that donkey.

The next excitement was the AbilityNet representative coming to collect my laptop. I am concerned about the interim period while it is away, particularly my daily update for this blog. In event, all that happened was that a  courier left the substitute laptop and I was told to await further instructions from AbilityNet.  In fact, I spoke to the technical arm of AbilityNet is afternoon and the consultant is going to deal with it is going to attempt to do it by remote assistance, i.e. taking over control of my computer over the Internet. This is all supposed to happen next Monday or Tuesday. Having said that it would still require people to plug things in and to put discs in out of the various computers and there’s no way that I can see ‘my lovely’ managing that. It just isn’t her scene, so I’m going to try to get Mick to help me, before he leaves on Sunday morning, to do as much as we can in advance of the telephone call on Monday with the consultant.We had a lovely evening. After our usual bottle of champagne and an early supper we ended up watching a beautifully crafted play, Lost for Words, in memory of the actor, Peter  Postaliethhaite who died recently, in which Peter and Dame Thora Hird played mother and son. The play sensitively dealt with the problems experienced by the children when their parents reached the age when they are alone and start suffering from strokes and Alzheimer’s.

A joke for you to help you understand how modern economic works . It is a slow day in the small Saskatchewan town of Pumphandle and streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit. A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op. The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her “services” on credit. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.. The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a  “stimulus package” works.