Tuesday 17 November

The big news in Croydon is that the council is totally bankrupt. Only 3 councils in 20 years have achieved this, and no other London borough. We are wondering what implications this will have. No rubbish collections, reduction in social services, no street sweeping, increase in council tax? Not sure that we should be punished for the council’s mismanagement. All this to add to the other current problems.

Usual household tasks but also a nice walk. I am absolutely determined to spend time in the open air every day. It was 14C but rather windy. So far there has been hardly any frost, so the leaves have not turned gold in every case, in fact they are more likely to be blown from the trees. The grass is still growing and people are still getting the lawnmowers out.

We were talking about TV programmes which are popular. Do all the people who watch “Countryfile” rush out to the countryside to see all these wonderful things for themselves? What about the cookery programmes, Bake Off, Nigella, Mary Berry et al: and yet few people seem to spend much time cooking: they get a kit dinner from Hello Fresh, or similar. Vicarious pleasure I suppose.

I came across this CD of Jacques Loussier many years ago. Play Bach. His take on the Prelude 1 in C is just amazing. My German penfriend alerted me to this: thanks for the memory.