October 31-November 6, 2026
SATURDAY 31 A new weekly scrapbook is sometimes required to resurrect news from the previous week I forgot to include. Luckily, the BBC’s Farming Today repeated the one about eggs. Government rules forbid farmers from selling eggs laid by caged hens. Barns, free-range or organic are preferred, legally. And yet the government does not forbid the importing of caged-hen eggs, so UK farmers are understandably outraged at this piece of departmental double standardry and would prefer a level playing field with their egg-selling competitors. Banning the importation of caged-hen eggs would inevitably push up prices. Not banning imports would leave Britain’s egg producers in peril, say farmers.
📌 I got an early-evening text message from my wife (at her book group) saying, “Don’t forget it is Halloween. Don’t open the door to any visitors.” This is how we deal with Trick or Treaters nowadays. I even turned out all the lights and put the TV volume on low. Then I heard a knock at the door, turned the TV volume even lower and cowered slightly. Much later the knock on the door was revealed to have been an Amazon delivery person.
📌 Today is my niece’s birthday and it made me reflect that of my sister’s two children, she was closer to us in childhood whereas my nephew, her brother, has been closer to us in adulthood.
SUNDAY 1 Every day Brexit is losing its no-go status in polite conversation. The Prime Minister obviously sees Britain’s future as part of some kind of European union. The EU as an institution might have outlived its usefulness and a new kind of alliance is needed to move the United Europe project forward. That project might even include Canada, but the wind is in the sails for this government to take a key role in whatever is emerging.
📌 We had lunch with Rachel and she seems a lot brighter in spirit. She is exploring plans for her retirement and has surprisingly come to terms with the realities of her dog Alfie’s ailing health.
MONDAY 2 Rachel Reeves has piled in behind Andy Burnham’s ambitions for Britain to have a closer relationship with Europe. Jonty Bloom too, but with reservations about how honest a relationship that could ever be.
📌 The Budget last week was generally agreed to have adopted the doctor’s oath of “Do No Harm”. Not so, says Open Democracy, for 100,000 retired mineworkers, many suffering ill health, who are still being denied their rightful pension increase because of a last-minute accounting dirty trick pulled by Chancellor John Healey.
📌 The Mexico trip next year was very nearly in doubt when it came to buying travel insurance.
📌 Shirley’s clothes repair workshop was well attended and I managed to “invisibly” mend a moth hole in the sleeve of a jumper
TUESDAY 3 There is a growing number of UK workers who are pissed off with their jobs and the pay they get.
📌 An item on the radio reported of cyber attacks on supermarket fridges leading to lots of food being trashed. But the report then went deeper to reveal that the technology that underpins services we take for granted (heating, lights, refrigeration) has over time been neglected by the companies that run them and they are now so old, decrepit and defenceless that hackers find them easy game.
📌 Catholics are morally obligated to vote.
📌 I was looking forward to getting some hearing aids today, but now I’m fuming. For several days Specsavers have been sending messages to remind me of my 1pm appointment, but this morning someone called to say the audiologist has been “called away to a meeting” so my appointment with audio clarity will have to wait. I made my feelings clear.
WEDNESDAY 4 The news media are claiming Trump has had his day. I’m not so sure, but fingers crossed.
📌 We finalised our trip to Mexico with Joe at Trailfinders. As we sat at his desk and played with his computer to join all the dots for our tour, the price actually fell substantially, which encouraged us to splash out on better seats on the plane.
📌 The Culture Mile networking event crammed far too many people into a small annex at the Haberdashers’ Hall. Luckily they employed a roving magician to entertain visitors. Shirley told us that at a previous event in sweltering heat, he refused to take off his jacket which makes you wonder.
📌 We’ve nearly finished the first series of the preposterous comedy Rivals, based on the writings of the late Jilly Cooper. The expression “so bad it’s good” springs to mind, but it carries a curious nostalgia for late 1980s British popular culture.
THURSDAY 5 Michelle gave me some tips on stitching faces, which I’m bad at. She said don’t try to outline features such as eyes and noses so much as cast them into an area of shadow and leave the viewer to decide what feature is what.
📌 Catherine suggests I buy an inflatable wobble cushion on which to fit my daily balance exercises.
📌 PG Wodehouse has some cracking similies about dogs and food.
He uttered a sound much like a bulldog swallowing a pork chop whose dimensions it has underestimated.
FRIDAY 6 The Democrats now need to prove they can change the American people’s lives for the better. If all they do is continually harp on a about the extent and depth of Trump’s corruption, voters might not shift from the currently held view that the Democrats are “weak and woke”.
📌 The 90s Art And Fashion at Tate Britain was a huge disappointment. Magazine fashion photography and catwalk film prevailed and though I searched in desperation for something to like, nothing much offered itself up. The rooms seemed crammed with clever-dick gimmickry. One exhibit, which I presumed was a comment on lung cancer turned out to be the butt-print of someone’s friend.
I was especially disappointed by the lack of painting, but did finally find two that spoke to me.
Tate Britain isn’t without its other attractions and just outside the gallery hosting the 90s exhibition was the reconstruction of a roadside Algerian café/bar as part of a pocket exhibition about colonialism.
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