April 25 – May 1, 2026
SATURDAY 25 More predictions of Starmer’s demise abound. There is a fun parallel in the fortunes of his favourite football team Arsenal. Until the middle of this week The Gunners looked like this season’s Premier League winners. Then they were sneakily overtaken by Manchester City. Can they still emerge triumphant, and can Starmer survive? Veteran contrarian Simon Jenkins believes Starmer’s stupidity over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador is a small fuss about very little and to oust him would be madness.
Getting rid of Starmer at present is out of all proportion to this affair.
SUNDAY 26 Someone allegedly tried to kill Donald Trump, but because he was caught on camera smirking just before it happened, everyone is saying the “assassination attempt” was staged by Trump’s goon squad to deflect attention from his tanking popularity.
📌 At The Art House Sean and I held a Sew Bros workshop that was attended mainly by women. Rose Blake was among the visitors to the exhibition.
MONDAY 27 At 6am, waiting for the taxi to take me to hospital to have my peachy left buttock mutilated, I took comfort in a perfect score in Waffle.
📌 Standing room only in the hospital waiting room. Looks like hip replacement surgeries run like buses.
📌 They put a tube down my throat during surgery, so swallowing is very difficult.
📌 The young patient in Bed 21 (I’m in 20) has just had his second hip replaced. He used to be a professional rower. We both agree that the cherry flavoured morphine they give you to drink is really quite nice.
📌 TUESDAY 28 The word existential is now easily one of the most overused words in the British media. Or is it just in the Guardian?
📌 According to an article in the New Statesman, “the Raynerites and the Burnhamites are coagulating into a single group.” Coagulating, I ask you.
WEDNESDAY 29 My first day at home following hip replacement surgery is a learning process. On Mark’s recommendation I have ordered a dog lead, which can be hooped over the foot of my surgery leg and pulled to raise and lower the swollen “dead” injured leg.
THURSDAY 30 For the past two months our friend Anne has been on a post-retirement travel tour and posting photos of her numerous destinations. If the project was meant to signal a new chapter in her life, one of the great oversights is learning how to take a selfie.
📌 The second full day post surgery has been depressing. My wife thinks I’m putting undue pressure on her organisational skills. I am just unhappy that after nearly 38 years of marriage she doesn’t know the difference between my reading glasses and my distance glasses. Nevertheless a visit from an OT tomorrow will hopefully offer some relief. Walked a bit further than yesterday.
FRIDAY 1 I think my wife is secretly underdosing my pain medication.
📌 The visit from the City of London OT was partly successful. They don’t loan wheelchairs and they’ve run out of walking sticks. I will hopefully get a contraption to raise the toilet seat on Tuesday, but I’m not holding my breath. The difference in the services offered between my stroke 13 years ago and those offered today are stark.
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Billy's Scrapbook 