6 August 2011
The night before last was the first time that I had been put to bed by anyone other than’ my lovely’ since I contacted MND. Michael, the good doctor, was strictly in locus parenti but Craig had a job to do and intended to do it, so between them they jointly battled out various tasks. In the end I was pretty well where I would’ve been had my lovely’ being here herself.
However, much as I admire the good doctor and the carers, no one makes me as comfortable as Alice.
 Around lunchtime we tried to convince ourselves that it was nice enough to have lunch the garden, after all it is only the beginning of August! – although to be honest it was overcast and cloudy and at least 10° colder than the day before. Still, we persevered and having eaten and smoked a small cigar, a drop of rain convinced us that we would be better off inside. The rest of the day passed peacefully enough with both of us reading until the rugby between England and Wales came on in the afternoon. Mick had packed and was ready for his taxi around 4.00. He checked in online and discovered that he had been updated Business Class (Lucky Devil). Some years ago he save the life of the senior attendant or one of the passengers on Qantas (or something along those lines) so is always targeted for an update if one becomes available.
 All the news at present concerns the parlous state of the world economy- are we possibly heading for another deep depression like the 30’s, as I suggested a few days ago? I really hope not. Except today we moved one step closer to the edge of the precipice when America was downgraded from a triple AAA gold standard economy by the Standards and Poor credit agency. This has prompted a reaction from China, who hold around one third of the American debt, angrily suggested that they put their house in order. The only crumb of comfort I can take is that it is not in anyone’s interest for either the American’s defaulting on their loans or any of the members of the EU. We are very much in a global market today and any default could cause the whole bubble to burst. Our trouble is that whatever happens to our income or capital there is very little that I can do about it at my age and we will just have to ride out the storm and hope we survive in reasonable financial shape.