12 November 2011

 Are you still puzzled about the complexities of high finance and the problems with the Euro zone? Click here and see how the Canadians view it . No country would be immune. If the euro zone crumbled under the weight of debt owed by Spain, Italy, Portugal and even France. I believe that the country most vulnerable in this group is Italy.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian playboy Prime Minister has had last resigned following great pressure, not only from his Cabinet but also from the population at large. It seems suddenly that everyone hates him. He said he would not go until there was a plan in place, passed by Parliament, to get Italy out of the financial hole which seem to have dug for itself. The problem now is that they are having to pay 7% on borrowed money to service their debt, which is equivalent to 20% of their GDP, which is clearly unsustainable This plan has now been passed by the Italian parliament but whether it will satisfy the Eurocracts, the IMF, et al remains to be seen. I am very sceptical about Italy’s plans to reform itself. It might look good on paper but then their heart must be in it to make it work and knowing how laid-back the average Italian is, I very much doubt whether it is. As the leader of the largest party. There are already rumours flying about that Berlusconi may well attempt a comeback at some stage. I seem to remember that he tried to introduce an act of Parliament,. some time ago to exempt him from prosecution for various accusations of corruption, which, of course he denied,, but I do not believe that act ever gone on to the statute book. Owning,, or having control of, most of the media in Italy must have made it easier for him to attempt to convince the Italian people that he was whiter than white, which, by all events, he seems to have achieved, to some degree, otherwise he could not possibly have lasted 30 years in power. Now, it seems, that even his loyalist supporters are beginning to l believe there may be some truth in the accusations.

Spain seems to have dropped out of the headlines for the time being , no doubt because of the imminence of a possible default by Italy and Portugal substituted in its place.. Although we have not heard very much about Portugal. it seems that they too are in the same sort of trouble as Spain.. (See my full prophecy in the 23 March; 2 August and 11 of November entries where I predicted that Spain then Portugal and finally, Italy would fail to service their debts and this could possibly cause the crumbling of the Eurozone with tsunami type financial woes for the rest of us.. The problem is that this is entirely new territory and the world has never found itself quite in this position before. As a result no one can predict, with. Aof certainty, what will be the effect on the non-euro countries. As I suggested before, we must just hang on for the ride, but it is going to be rough from time to time.

It now looks as though the problems I was having over the contracts for the fourth edition of my book – Arbitration Practice and Procedure-Interlocutory and Hearing Problems – have now been resolved and it now comes down to the date when the contributing editors can finish their work on a new date agreed for the delivery of the manuscript the publishers.

I’m immensely grateful to James Barnett, struggling through negotiations with my publishers on what must be quite a complicated contract aimed to last for the length of my copyright. The main problem now is how much my good friend Julian can manage to achieve over the three-weeks during the Christmas break. I would feel more comfortable if I was confident that he could meet the new deadline date of the end of January, which will mean a possible publication date, say in June, but I am not at all sanguine that this will be achieved. I really would like to be around to see this new edition on the shelves but without being and too pessimistic or a Jonah. I do not have complete confidence that I shall still be around in June. The rate of deterioration in MND patients is so unpredictable that no one can even hazard an ,educated guess on once life expectancy, on which they would have any confidence If I have not deteriorated much more then I than I a next,, my target will be March 2013, our 50th wedding anniversary, but just at this moment it seems a very long way off..

11 November 2011

Remembrance Day (aka Poppy Day or Armistice Day) is a day observed in the Commonwealth countries since the end of World War 1..to remember the members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty. It was in 1919 that George V decreed this memorial day. be observed on 11 November each year to recall the official end of World War I. in 1918,. When host and ilities formally ended “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” with the German signing of the Armistice. This day was subsequently extended as a Memorial day to all members of the Armed Forces killed in action in any war since 1914 -1918 war.

The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day because of the poem “In Flanders Fields”, written by John MrCrae. Poppies bloom across some of more notorious battlefields of Flanders in World War I. which inspired McCrae to write the poem. Their brilliant colour, is a stark, spine chilling reminder of the blood spilled in the war. It is traditional in the Commonwealth to include either one or 2 min of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month .(indeed, I did so myself today at 11 o’clock this morning, sitting quietly alone in my study) In the UK each year on 11 November there is a special service held at the Cenotaph, (literally empty tomb-dedicated to the unknown soldier) in Whitehall , which is attended by the Queen and other members of the Royal family as well as the heads of all three armed services and a large number of veterans who march to commemorate all of those who have fallen in active service in any field of operation since the First World War.

This year the number 11 has a special significance due to it being 2011. This, of course, only occurs once every hundred years and is considered by some to be exceptionally lucky.

For example, a great number of weddings take place today, particularly in China, where such superstitions around numbers runs rife.| 

I recall some years ago when I was in China hearing of a wealthy businessman paying $1 million for the single numeral 8 on a car number plate. Number 8 being the luckiest number for the Chinese. For that reason if you have an 8 in your birthday you are considered the very lucky. I have two out of a possible three On 8 August 1988 housands of Chinese got married. in mass ceremony.

 

10 November 2011

A technician from Holly’s wheelchairs came yesterday to fit the chin control to my wheelchair. It’s only a tiny little saucer shaped piece of, metal, about 2 inches in diameter and I just wonder how difficult it will be to navigate safely with it., Certainly on very uneven surfaces, such as the pavement from here to The Cricketers. I should be very circumspect about trying to control the chair this way. I think I will wait until I’m in some wide-open space, like golf course or our garden, before I try it out. Whilst he was here the technician also fitted some new plates for my feet, which now incorporate a heel guard to prevent my feet, slipping off as I have done in the past.

We also had a visit from Jenny Buckley, the physiotherapist, as a follow-up from my recent visit to Papworth Hospital.. She came to see if you could introduce me to some shoulder exercises but when I went through those that are I have a been doing myself for some years. she seemed perfectly satisfied that these would do the job as well as any new ones that she might suggest. we left it at the status quo.

Lunch today at The Cricketers, it is almost becoming a weekly event. On this occasion it was with one of the ‘old faithful’, Douglas Gordon,. Regular readers will know all about Douglas as I have written about him, in depth, in the past. Suffice it to say, to jog your memory, he was my erstwhile stockbroker and founder of the best village magazine in the country .I feel a fool recording yet again the fact that we ate our lunch outside as each time I do it, I swear it will be the last time this year.. I know my friends only do it to humour me as it is common knowledge that I like a little cigar when I get the chance. Anyway, it was certainly mild enough as we were both fairly well muffled up.. Douglas and wife Cecilia (my erstwhile piano teacher) and recently returned from a rather grand Scottish tour with such commitments is as the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and staying in such grand places as the home of the Duke of who apparently, to Douglas’s chagrin, insisted on carrying his suitcases up to his room.

I received a comment on my blog from a gentleman who was apparently sitting inside The Cricketers last week when I was eating outside.

With was with his wife, who was in a wheelchair as she had is suffering from MS. He spotted me through the window and drew his wife’s attention to the funny old boy sitting out in the cold smoking a small cigar at the end of ,what he described as. A lavatory roll holder. He was intrigued. When he got home he happened to be surfing the net and somehow found himself on this blog and was amazed when he recognised me as the odd character . he had spotted through the window of The Cricketers.. It’s a small world, as they say.

No news yet either from Ruben, the senior technician at a Dragon or the trading standards officer to whom I referred the case. I shall have to chase them up, find out what is happening. In the meantime, I struggle on with all the frustration of the intermittent freezing of the voice activation, together with its unpredictable ways of t accessing various files, e-mails, twitter etc in the middle of a period of dictation. I have The MND Association fully apprised of my action in the following this matter to the Trading Standards Office and they appear to be solidly behind me. This may be the result of me pointing out to them that I had to log on nine times in order to complete the e-mail to them

As my Australian doctor friend Michael has just left. I thought I would include, on today’s entry a fairly typical Australian joke, Click here.

9 November 2011

I’m glad to say that I am suffering from minimal night pain in my joints since the injection in my shoulder.. Why on earth that should affect my knees and hips . I am still at a loss to fathom.. The thing that is given in most pain is getting this laptop to log-on to Dragon at the beginning of each day. For example I have spent half an hour this morning trying to get it to work and as a result had to close it down and re- booted it several times before it worked.

I sent a full report to the MND Association yesterday (prepared by Paul ‘the computer’) who I believe did a great job in analysing the problem but is not in a position to resolve it. The covering e-mail to MND Association t mentioned the 9 attempts to get onto the voice activation and they were ready shocked. Fortunately, they appear to be fully behind me in reporting Nuance to the trading standards people, so now we must just wait and see what happens.

The financial world is certainly in crisis at the moment. We don’t need agitators camping around the forecourt of St Pauls Cathedral to tell us that. The latest scare is the rate at which iItaly is now having to borrow money to service its debts. 7% is equivalent to 20% of its GDP, which is clearly unsustainable. I think Berlusconi has come to the end of a long run and Italy could well be the first casualty of the Eurozone. If it goes under, and is followed by one or two others like Greece and Portugal, then I suspect the whole Eurozone will crumble. Heaven knows what financial tsunami will follow. It is u-trodden ground. I do know some people who have liquidated their shareholding into cash which I cannot believe is a good idea long-term.

One only has to cast one’s my back to the last depression when the Deutschmark went through horrendous devaluation and people were literally taking barrow loads of money to the baker to buy a loaf of bread. I suspect that our knowledge of the global financial market is far more sophisticated than it was in those days, and that the powers that be may well be able to avoid such a harsh outcome. But, in the meantime it is very difficult to know what personal measures one can take, to safeguard one’s own interests, other than to hang on and hope. Interestingly enough, so far, the stock market has held up relatively well. The FTSE in excess of 5000 whereas in the last recession, it went down to around 3500. Well, it’s pointless worrying about something that I cannot do anything about. I shall just ride the waves with everyone else.

When I do know is that strikes against the measures that governments are being forced to takeare futile and can only exacerbate the situation. Alarmingly, the Head teachers are now going on strike and a series of other strikes are planned for the forthcoming months. What a poor example that is to children under their care.. Surely the members of those trade unions must realise what a mess we are in and that exceptions cannot be made. For example, the long-term plan of extending the pension age and increasingly the amount of contributions by a relatively small amount is imperative. It is a relatively small sacrifice to make now that if not implemented now, there would come a time when there was simply not enough money in the kitty to pay the pensioners s,o the situation would be far worse than the small amount of pain that has to be suffered at this stage.

As if there were not enough bad news about to frighten people. We were told that three day ago that there was a asteroid ,Yu55, the size of an aircraft carrier .hurtling past the Earth, at 30,000 mph and only avoided us by 200,000 miles, the nearest an asteroid has been to us for 200 years. Fortunately, these astronomers seem to know what they’re talking about as an asteroid that size, striking the Earth could well knock it off. it’s orbit and spell the end for all of us.

In the same vein, we were told that the debris from a defunct satellite would be falling to in the next day or two but they knew not where. Click here to see a little speculative video showing what might happen if it comes anywhere near you!.

8 November 2011

I was a bit of a wimp. today, as the weather didn’t look at all enticing. It was grey, overcast and drizzly with a chilly wind blowing. Much as I love going to the Tuesday, geriatric golf day. I did not fancy driving around in my electric wheelchair in the light rain and getting soaked., So I cancelled I fear this is the beginning of a long winter for me as I suspect there will be many days when the weather will not be good enough for me to go.

The latest bit of scandal concerns immigration. Apparently due to staff shortages and the volume of traffic going through our various entry points, in the summer, the Foreign Secretary instructed the Immigration Officers to relax their normal photograph and thumbprint check on entry. In effect, waving through thousands of people during the peak season, including heaven knows how many terrorists. Since 7/11, like so many other thousands of air passengers, I accepted that going through security would take a little longer. This latest news is an absolute scandal and certainly warrants the resignation of the Foreign Secretary. If they are that short of staff why do they not engage t some more from the tens of thousands of unemployed, including many university graduates, as tourism represents a large percentage of our GDP. I’m quite sure they could increase some tax or other to pay for the additional cost of staff. Ironically, the security on outgoing passengers is just the strict as it ever was. Even down to removing one’s shoes so they can be X rayed (remember the terrorist who hid the ingredients for a bomb in his shoex).

I scarcely need mention that my laptop is still playing up or rather the voice activation, Dragon programme. It took me 17 attempt is this morning to logon to Dragon.Now I have formally reported this to this Trading Standards Office, I wonder what sort of response that will elicit.

We had a bit of a fright last evening when the NHS lounger chair, in which I spend 14 hours on most days, did not function from its remote-control. Fortunately it was stuck in a forward position on which I perched for the whole evening, much to my discomfort, as the lack of flesh on my bottom means that I spent the evening sitting on my bone.s The engineer is supposed to be on call 24/7, but there was not even an answerphone on which we can leave a message. Thank heavens, I was not stuck up in the air as we would have had to either call 999 or the paramedics to get me down. We are waiting for the engineer to arrive as I write at 8.10 a.m.. We waited, and waited but no sign of him, in fact he did not turn up at all, so I shall chase him tomorrow.

Talking of dates reminds me of the couple, who were asked what was the worst date ever. Click here to read theit answer. Incidentally, have some of you think my jokes are getting a little near the knuckle, as they say, I invite my readers to send me the very best joke,. they have heard. No, as long as they are not political, racist, homophobic, sexual, or just downright rude, I will consider sharing them with my other readers.

7 November 2011

A footnote to the tragic story of the multiple car crash near Taunton yesterday. It has now been is now been confirmed that dense smoke from the bonfire allegedly, lit by the local rugby club, adjacent to the motorway, was certainly the principal cause of the accident.

Presumably the unsuspecting motorist went from totally clear vision to immediate blackout and as a result, drove into the truck on the hard shoulder. I noticed in my own household insurance policy, which has just come up for renewal, that we are not allowed to have bonfires within 100 m of the house. Fortunately we live i on a fairly large plot of land, but even then we would have two or three flavours who are less than 100 m away, not counting those across the road. What on earth are we supposed to do if they decide to have a bonfire on the entry to their better nature. Presumably the insurance company mean that we, the insured, must not a bonfire within 100 metres of the house. How many people do you know have enough land to be able to live a bonfire that close to the property?!

It makes one wonder if we have gone into the’ silly season’. For example, yesterday I have heard someone talking about the government or someone involved in the housing programme, suggest that elderly people with bedrooms to spare should consider moving out into smaller accommodation and thus releasing the bigger house for the local people with large or growing families. Whoever made this suggestion cannot have thought it through. For example, in the first instance. The young people would be unlikely to be able to afford the larger house and worse than that if the elderly people downsized into a small two-bedroom or three-bedroom bungalow for example, this would deprive the young growing family of a house that the young growing family could possibly just afford. So the complete opposite objective would be achieved by this ludicrous suggestion.

Let us look at another silly season suggestion mentioned on the radio this morning. ‘Children’of elderly parents (which probably makes them in their 50’s) are recommended to observe their parents closely, particularly if they do not see them from one month to the next, and note any early signs of dementia. Presumably they would then report this to the local Gestapo who would come in and eliminate them. In all seriousness, they would pass on this information to the local health authority who would presumably pay a visit, and tried to treat the dementia or, at least, to slow it down. A commendable object but it does rather smack of Hitler youth prior to the last war reporting any casual criticism of the Hitler regime with the predictable outcome. Heaven help us if these suggestions are being made by people in authority able to follow them through. There is one thing in alerting the social services to a family we believe a child is being abused and another in reporting your mum and dad when you get a little forgetful.

While I remember (!), for those of you are interested I have slept pain free. Since I had the injection in my shoulder at the beginning of last week. I am very surprised if this somehow has affected the pain in my knees and hip is but I suppose it’s just possible that if it, say, coutisone it got into the bloodstream. Interestingly, the good Dr Michael, who has been staying with us, speculates that the eye drops, which are administered four times a day, and which contains cortisone.

As my computer has been driving me (and Paul) mad over the last few
days I thought I would give my readers the sort of frustration I have.
suffered from. Have a go at this by clicking on the cat.

6 November 2011

Well, we survived Guy Fawkes’ night without mishap avoiding any spent rockets landing on our thatched roof, this despite various local bonfire and firework parties going on in adjacent, or near adjacent, properties. We were fairly relaxed this year as we had 19 cm of rain, (which would have thoroughly soaked the thatch) last night, which was about the same quantity that we had received in this part of the world over the past six months.

I had another virtually pain-free night, last night which is marvellous.

The good Dr thinks it could possibly be something to do with the cortisone injection in my shoulder plus the miniscule amount of cortisone in the eye drops and I’m taking every day since the cataract operation. Certainly I will mention this to Dr Mark, the pain consultant at Papworth Hospital when I see him in a couple of weeks time..

Our good Dr. Michael was up and away early morning, back to Sweden this time, after we had a final chat over a cup of coffee. His little car in Sweden was parked out in the open for the past week and he could find some difficulty in getting it to start. At least once he gets it going. he knows he will be safer on the road, then he would be in this country when it snows. The reason for this is that, under Swedish law, all motorists must fit snow tyres to their vehicles from the beginning of September. Contrast this country when it snows, all hell lets loose. We always seemed to run out of salt and grit for the roads, railways freeze up, causing chaos to the commuters and you take your life in your hands on the roads for the lunatics who drive even faster ignoring black ice.

Paul ‘the computer’ spent a couple of hours with me the early afternoon whilst ‘my lovely’ went off to the local farm shop. By the results. I’ve been having over the last couple of days. I think the idea of cleaning the hard disk and reinstalling the programmes in combination with upgrading Microsoft Office 2010 from Home/Student to Office Professional, might well have done the trick, although it can still take me half a dozen attempts, or more, to log onto a functioning Dragon and then, after that I sometimes can leave it on all day without it freezing up (not responding) as it did previously. Still no word from Nuance despite my rather pathetic appeals mentioning my severe disability limited life expectancy. Maybe they will sit up and take notice, when they hear from the Trading Standards officer.

We experienced one of the worst road accidents. we have suffered in this country for many years, on Guy Fawkes night. Sadly, there was a 20 car pileup on the M5 motorway resulting in the death of seven people with a further 50 injured, some of them very severely. The first car apparent that drove into the back of a stationary lorry on the hard shoulder. It is thought that it might have been the result of smoke drifting across the motorway from an adjacent Guy Fawkes’ bonfire, part of a firework party organised by the local rugby club. It is easy to see what might have happened. The first car plunging into dense black smoke would have braked suddenly breaking and the others, probably travelling to close behind piled into it, one after the other, with the tragic circumstances. I have described. I wonder if the government introduced legislation making it unlawful to light a bonfire within 100 m of a motorway or class A road, it would have averted such accident. Having said that, would such legislation be practicable. bearing in mind that there would be very few domestic dwellings where you could observe this restriction.

5 November 2011

Guy Fawkes’ Day. Gunpowder, treason and plot and all that. The day we dread most in the yearly calendar due to living in a house with a thatched roof. Any carelessly pointed rocket could end up on the roof with its contents still smouldering, and hey presto, a lovely house would go up in flames. This happened last , in this house, in the early Fifties, when it had just been re-thatched and there was a pile of unused straw close to the house, which the children played in and for some unknown reason, decided to set fire to it. Flames from this bonfire quickly caught the new straw thatch above and the roof was soon resembled a flamethrower. Fortunately, with wind going through the house the roof burned off very quickly and did minimal damage inside to the ancient oak structure. Having said that I would not wish to repeat this incident. On most Guy Fawkes’ night’s in Day. in the past,’ my lovely’ and I would be alert to local bonfires and be prepared, with the water hose in case we should see a passing rocket land on the roof. Fortunately, individual bonfires on the whole seem to have died out (if you’ll excuse the pun) and a community bonfire with much more exciting fireworks is usually laid on, in our village on the Jubilee field and an even more magnificent display is put on in our adjacent village, in Newport.

The proposed Greek referenda on whether or not Greece should leave the Eurozone is now definitely off and we await a possible vote of confidence in the Prime Minister. The G 20 finance ministers were supposed to have a cut and dried deal on the table by the date of ther meeting, which finished yesterday. In doublespeak, the French Prime Minister, said that they had achieved their objective in agreeing the deal but there was a lot of detail to be sorted out. As the devil is in the detail. clearly no deal has been done, yet! Why can’t politicians, he straightforward and honest and say it as it is, instead of obfuscating issues by doublespeak?

The good Dr. rose early this morning and went off to shop in Saffron Walden. He just loves shop ping but  heaven knows what he wanted to buy that he could not equally buy ,in Copperberg, his local town in Sweden but there you are, if you are a shopaholic then I suppose that is less offensive than beating up old ladies or getting up to some other mischeif!

Click here to see a little video clip which you might find amusing. I call it The Golf Girl

4 November 2011

I heard, during the night, on the BBC World Service, that the Greek Prime Minister has changed his mind about the referenda, I’ve no doubt under political pressure. I think it is felt that there will be a vote of confidence mounted shortly and he will probably go and a general election called. In any event, popular opinion has it that the end result would probably mean that Greece leaves the Eurozone. and restores, what one commentator, irreverently called that ‘Mickey Mouse’ currency, the drachma. Whichever way you look at it the Greek citizens are in for a rough for the next three or four years, if not longer. Remember, how long it took Japan, the second biggest industrial nation in the Western world, to drag itself out of its recession’

I believe the problem may well have emanated from to exercise of due diligence (or more correctly the lack of it) in determining what exchange rate to give Greece when it entered into the Eurozone. (I.e. 10 Euro equals X number of drachma) Obviously there’s a great deal to be taken on trust and unless there is complete honesty and open bookis it must be very difficult to get an exact exchange rate, which is fair to both sides.

If Greece does leave the Eurozone, this, of course, will be unprecedented and no one quite knows what the ramifications will be. Germany and France have maintained steadfastly that they will not allow this to happen but it may be beyond their control. Once one has gone then, as I suggested the other day, countries like Portugal, Italy and even France, could follow. Although this situation has been discussed at the recent G 20 meeting of finance ministers there is as yet no clear plan established. It seems that the IMF could cope with Greece and its problems but if one of the larger economies such as Italy went down, as things stand, present emergency measures would have to be taken. Even then, if more than one country goes under it seems to me that the whole Eurozone is likely to crumble (there has to be a limit to how much bailing out the Germans are prepared to do) and, as a result, countries will go back using to their own currencies, allowing them to float to their real value in the world market, as we have done in England. Whether that would be the end of it or the beginning of world recession. Heaven knows, I am no economist and maybe talking complete rot!.

Turning to matters of more immediate importance to us. ‘My lovely’ shot off-again early this morning . once I was settled in my study chair, this time to Cambridge. She is a glutton for punishment’. Shopping in Cambridge can be a nightmare at the best of times, apart from the parking, which even in the multi-storey car park can take some time to achieve,. Then wandering around, from shop to shop, in the breezy, drizzly cold weather, is not my idea of fun. In any event, she has given me a substantial wad of pocket money to take the good Dr to lunch at the Cricketers. I was quite reconciled to the fact that this would probably be the first time we will be driven indoors by the weather and hoped that at least we could sit outside with our coffee and cigar,. However, quite incredibly the weather changed almost exactly at 12.30. as we approached the pub,. Suddenly, the clouds rolled away and a azure blue sky appeared and we basked in the warmth of the winter sunshine. . It was unreal, particularly as it only lasted until we decided to come home around 2.30, then the clouds rolled in and rain was threatened.. This was even more astonishing realising that it was 4 November.

The alternative would have been to do what we did last night and have our drink and cheapo cigar, in the breakfast room, having discovered, last evening, that the mobile wheelchair actually fits between the arch, which divides the kitchen and from the breakfast room. This would be particularly good at Christmas, when all the family will be here, because it means that we can have our Christmas dinner in the breakfast room altogether and I will be able to join in, without having to go outside in the cold. where I had visions of driving outside in the wind and rain to get there. This discovery is important for my poor bottom as instead of having to sit in the same chair for 14 hours . I now have an alternative which will give me a change from my study.

As a whole, world seems topsy-turvy at present I thought these weird pictures would be appropriate to add to today’s entry. Click here to see them.

3 November 2011

My lovely’ left for London early this morning. She got me up onto the edge of the bed drinking my early morning tea and then handed me over to the good Dr. Mick is well used to looking after me as he did so, single-handedly, in Sweden. In fact ,he’s just about the only civilian Alice would trust to do so. Even then, the dear old thing left clutches of notes here and there reminding the good Dr. to do this and that and when. I am delighted that she can have a t stress-free day off in London and not worry herself about who is looking after me Fortunately she trusts Michael beyond all others. I know that she’s giving son Smiler lunch at the Italian restaurant opposite his gallery which she has been unable to do now for the best part of a year.

Mick and I soon settled down to a quiet day together. I love to see him sitting in a deep armchair ploughing his way through one of the many books he never seems to have time to read when he is at home. Perhaps I should say his other his other home for, as the saying goes, home is where your heart is, and his heart is certainly here, not exclusively but when he visits us, and, as a result we have made it clear that he is to treat this place as if he was in his own home.Mia cassa, sua cassa (I think that’s how you spell it)

After I had finished my blog and dealing with e-mails I got onto the trading standards people who I called last Friday. I was told that they had a return call policy within four working days and today is the fourth day. They were very apologetic and promised to ring me back which I’m sorry to say they did not. so I called again and they have renewed the following working day pledge, but running from today. In the meantime, still nothing from Nuance.

Which is the very reason for contacting them. To make a formal complaint against Nuance, the suppliers of my Dragon voice activation system to whom I sent a complaint almost 6 months ago which they have still not managed to resolve

This after 55 telephone calls from me and at least 14 hours talking to their technicians. My complaint is basically for fraudulent misrepresentation, they claim that they offer technical support free to suit individuals needs. What they fail to mention is that the caller is paying for the telephone call at a premium rate. (Admittedly, only six p a minute, but that still merrily up to over £40. The money is not important, but the principle is) Secondly, I believe any programme that requires six months (or even more as it is yet not resolved) to sort out its problems is ‘unfit for purpose’ (Sale of Goods Act etc). I informed the MND loan equipment section, what I was doing, as clearly the contract for this programme is between the MND Association and Nuance, but if it came to the legalities of the situation I believe I could invoke Contracts ( Rights OF Third Parties) Act 1999. I do not believe these people should get away with such a shabby service, particularly as they know that I am severely disabled and rely very heavily on voice activation and six months, during MND patient, could be a significant part of what time they have left..

The tented army of protesters at St Pauls Cathedral continues to attract media attention this, after the cathedral authorities agreed last night to allow them to stay until the New Year without specifying a precise date by which they should leave. I believe this to be a big mistake. but then I am not as tolerant as the church officers. These sort of people, from whatever walk of life. they come, be it rich or poor, only understand a firm hand. There was yet another editorial in yesterday’s Times, headed Strange Occupation. Whichever bunch of weirdos , to whom you attribute this occupation., the blame cannot be placed on the church or its officers. It is suggested that the front of St Paul’s was merely a convenient open space near the London Stock Exchange. and that is why these agitators set up camp there, nothing to do with the church. Whilst admiring the leaders of St Paul’s for taking their teachings so seriously, that the question of how to please a small demonstration has caused a crisis of conscience, resulting in the resignation of the Canon and the Dean. The editorial suggests that any other churchman considering resigning over this issue should realise that this protest is not against the church and they therefore it should not responsible for ending it and they should not allow this small group of protesters to distract them from their mission or deprive them of their livelihood. On the other hand, it is suggested that the protesters should reflect upon the damage their presence is now doing to innocent people and their families, and to an institution that promotes moral behaviour as an alternative to greed and selfishness. St Paul’s was not their target, but is now their victim ‘