Sunday 16th July

I don't know why the post before this says Thursday June 22nd, but perhaps it will sort itself out..

I do seem to have got rather behind with this, but then I've had broken ribs, I've got fibromyalgia and my latest affliction is a sore toe caused by some new shoes I bought in Market Harborough last weekend.   I should have worn some socks with them.

Watching tv I saw Trump in Paris with the rather good looking and very personable President Macron - Oh my beating heart.    A vast improvement on the French president of my youth - the bitter and twisted Charles de Gaulle who blocked our entry to the EU in 1963.     I didn't mind us not going into the EU then,  but I took umbrage - as most of us did - at de Gaulle vetoing our entry.    But now we are negotiating our way out it all seems the long, long time ago it was.

de Gaulle was being vengeful, he never forgave Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin for not inviting him to the summit conferences at Yalta and Potsdam. 

Macron - by the way - is one eighth British, a direct descendant of a First World War hero who received a medal for fighting in the Battle of the Somme.   Apparently he has only recently found out, his grandmother covered up the fact.   I wonder why.   I also understand that Macron said that growing up surrounded by war cemeteries strengthened his view that the EU is a vital block against nationalism.   But what is wrong with nationalism?

I've just realised that I can't remember the presidents between de Gaulle and Macron.  But then I do have "memory issues" for which I'm going to a memory clinic on the 10th August.   I'm looking forward to finding out just what a memory clinic is.    Am I going to be interviewed to discover how far back I can remember.    Or will I be given little tasks to do, to establish how much I remember.  I will let you know in due course.

It was reported here that Trump told Macron's wife she was "in good shape",  what on earth was that supposed to mean??  Everyone is wondering, and whatever it means it doesn't sound very presidential.

I didn't go to the 8 o'clock at St Andrew's this morning as Tim is away, but I went instead to the 6 o'clock this evening.   I'm glad I went, it was a good sermon, but I am not a fan of the jazzy singing they had.   It was a far cry from the quiet Evensong I used to love.