20th June 2023

On the final day of May, following a particularly miserably cold morning, Sue joined one of her U3A groups for a short afternoon ramble from Little Bowden, followed by a splendid picnic in the village hall. Left to prepare my lunch, I instead joined Jim Hankers and his two dogs, Harby and Dalby, for a walk to the pub in Lubenham. Although the website had indicated it was open, we were met with a hastily printed note on the door informing us that it wouldn’t open until 4 p.m.!

Trekking back to Willow Bank with empty stomachs, we decided to drive to the Bull’s Head in Clipston and try our luck there. Thankfully, it was open, and lunch was lovely.

On the 1st of June, my passport was delivered, and we took charge of Rocky and Nala for the night while Ruth and Jamie travelled to a funeral in Canterbury, where they stayed overnight.

The following day was Alice’s birthday; she is now three years old (doesn’t time fly?).

Later that week, on a particularly warm afternoon, Alice had a small garden party, followed by a celebration at a local soft-play centre with a few invited friends. But on the day, she enjoyed a deliberately chilly adventure with a visit to the SnowDome in Tamworth.

A few days later, Sue, Charlotte, Sarah, Lucas, Ellis, Alice, and Archie visited Hamerton Zoo in Cambridgeshire to continue the celebrations. It was a suitably warm June day, perfect for ice creams, exploring, and enjoying the exotic animals within the 20-acre site. They all had a fabulous time.

Jamie’s business, FX Learning, has, for the second year running, been named Forex Trading School of the Year in the Central England Prestige Awards. He and Ruth travelled to Birmingham to receive the award.

On the 5th of June, Jamie flew First Class to Mexico for a two-week holiday with his friend Tom. One of the distinct advantages of the modern world is that it no longer matters where you are, so long as you work for yourself online. However, when your work relies on the internet, it never truly stops; even relaxing in a first-class airport lounge becomes an opportunity to catch up on emails and other tasks.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for Ruth, her work as a Chartered Surveyor is far more hands-on. It requires her physical presence and doesn’t intrude on her downtime in quite the same way.

That same day, Sue took me to Leicester General Hospital for another injection of Lucentis. I’m well used to the routine now and have begun to develop tentative relationships with some of the staff. I’ve lost count of how many of these injections I’ve had, but at just under £500 a shot, I’m certainly not complaining about our wonderful NHS. It allows me to keep enjoying life to the full, helping to thwart the march of time as old age inexorably tries to spoil the party.

I’ve decided to fund the cost of a telephoto lens for my new Canon camera by selling some of the items stored in the loft that we no longer use. I had quite forgotten how exciting it can be to check each day on the number of views and watchers for the things I’m selling. It’s also surprising just how valuable some of our unused possessions turn out to be. I can now fully understand the abundance of TV adverts and apps encouraging people to declutter and sell their old items. I used eBay to shift our attic clutter and ended up making a total of £288.

Now that I have my new passport, Sue and I are looking forward to a cruise from Southampton to the USA and Canada in September and October. It’s lovely to have something to look forward to on the horizon.

The weather seems to have taken a turn for the better, and the UK is currently basking in glorious summer sunshine. Of course, this means the vegetables, fruit, and flowers need watering daily, and Sue and I are kept busy in the garden until the heat of the afternoon sun drives us indoors to seek refuge, often with a cooling drink in hand.

The weekend of the 10th–11th saw the Harborough Carnival and Fun Fair take place in town. Traditionally, this event seems to attract inclement weather, and on several occasions in the past, the Carnival has even had to be cancelled. But not this year. It remains a major fixture in the town’s calendar, drawing in large crowds to enjoy the procession of floats and the many activities scattered across Harborough.

However, now that our children have grown up and flown the nest, Sue and I prefer to stay quietly at home; perhaps it’s an age thing.

On Sunday afternoon, as the festivities were winding down and the popular (and very noisy) funfair continued in Welland Park, the drought of the past four weeks came to a dramatic end with a tremendous thunderstorm. The skies turned black, the temperature hovered around 30°C, lightning flashed, and thunder rolled, the wind whipped up to near hurricane strength, and hailstones the size of golf balls rained down, flattening the unprotected flowers and vegetables I had so carefully nurtured over recent weeks.

I had been hoping for rain, but not like this! It was, to say the least, frustratingly annoying. Several roads in Harborough were flooded, polytunnels shredded, and greenhouses smashed. I dread to think what happened to those still on the funfair rides at the time…

Jamie appears to be thoroughly enjoying himself in Mexico, getting into the party spirit in between attending to his online business. Sarah and her family have been making the most of the warmer weather with a spot of paddle boarding. Alice, who has been taking swimming lessons over the past year, is now quite confident in the water.

Charlotte was down to just two egg-laying hens from the half dozen or so she likes to keep, so it came as no surprise when she re-homed four rather bedraggled ex-battery chickens.

A family friend, Sheila Palmer, was recently rushed to Worcester Hospital after suffering a heart attack. She had been unwell for quite some time and was already awaiting heart surgery. Following the attack, she was prioritised and will undergo the operation once the doctors are satisfied she is strong enough. Sadly, she spent her 87th birthday in the hospital just a few days after the incident. However, a week later, she underwent a successful operation and was allowed home only a couple of days afterwards.

After a highly enjoyable holiday, Jamie returned to the UK, unfortunately having picked up a tummy bug the day before his flight, which made the journey rather uncomfortable. His friend had suffered the same bug a week earlier and managed to recover after a couple of quiet days. It’s an accepted hazard of travelling abroad and immersing yourself in new cultures; unless you’re extremely meticulous with hygiene and diet, these things do happen.

This year, Father’s Day in the UK fell on the 18th of June, as always on the third Sunday of the month. After a spell of pleasantly hot weather, the forecast predicted localised thunderstorms and heavy rain for the day. Sue and I met up with Diane and Ian (Lee’s parents) in Newbold Verdon to enjoy a barbecue. As we left Harborough, the rain began to fall, but thankfully it had cleared by the time we arrived at Sarah and Lee’s. Despite the thick cloud cover, we managed to enjoy a lovely meal in the garden and didn’t have to dash indoors, as we had half-expected. We hadn’t seen Lee’s parents for quite a while, but it’s always a pleasure to catch up with them, as we share a number of similar interests. We left mid-afternoon, aware that more heavy rain was due around 4 pm, and sure enough, it arrived not long after we got back to Willow Bank.

An Observation: Over just a few days in June, several controversial political figures made the headlines, and I think they’re worthy of comment.

Donald Trump was arrested on 13th June 2023, charged with unlawfully retaining national security information. He was arraigned in federal court in Miami and pleaded not guilty to all charges. The indictment alleges that Trump took classified documents with him to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office, and that he misled the National Archives about them. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison on each count. He also faces additional legal challenges, including a criminal investigation into his role in the January 6th Capitol attack.

Boris Johnson resigned as UK Prime Minister on 7th July 2022 following a cascade of government resignations, largely due to his handling of various scandals. The most damaging was “Partygate”, a series of illicit gatherings at Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Johnson and others were fined by the police, and it was concluded that they had misled Parliament about the events.

Nicola Sturgeon, former First Minister of Scotland, was arrested on 11th June 2023 as part of an investigation into the SNP’s funding and finances. She was questioned for seven hours and then released without charge. This is part of Operation Branchform, a two-year inquiry into alleged misuse of £600,000 of campaign donations. Her husband, Peter Murrell, was also arrested earlier in the year.

Silvio Berlusconi, the controversial former Italian prime minister and media tycoon, passed away on 12th June 2023 at the age of 86. He had been battling chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia. Known for his charisma and scandal-ridden political career, Berlusconi led Italy in multiple terms from 1994 to 2014. Despite legal troubles, including convictions for corruption and involvement with underage sex work, he remained a divisive but enduring figure in Italian politics.

A particularly hot topic in the news lately has been the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potentially profound impact on society. There’s increasing speculation that it could transform how we work, live, and interact, possibly even leading to social unrest or, as some fear, the collapse of civilisation.

The italicised section above wasn’t written by me, but by AI, specifically Google’s Bard, which they describe as your “creative and helpful collaborator to supercharge your imagination, boost productivity, and bring ideas to life.” I also experimented with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and noticed very little difference between the two. Both systems seemed to strive for balance in their responses, even when discussing polarising figures like Donald Trump or reporting sensitive events like Berlusconi’s death.

My verdict: A useful tool, though one with the potential to cause considerable harm in the wrong hands.

You might find it interesting to know that Bard itself has come under criticism:

• Accuracy: Bard has been found to produce factual errors, especially on detailed or nuanced topics.
• Bias: One study suggested that Bard may generate more content favouring conservative viewpoints over liberal ones.
• Safety: There are concerns about harmful or offensive content being generated.
• Ethics: The technology could potentially be used to create deepfakes or other misleading synthetic media.

That said, these issues are not unique to Bard. All large language models face similar challenges. Google is reportedly addressing them by appointing an AI ethics team and enhancing the training dataset to improve both accuracy and fairness.

Whether Bard will overcome these criticisms remains to be seen.

Hmmmm. We shall see.