A lovely sunny day. But I didn’t go out. I feel I am slipping down, notch by notch.

 

However, Daniella is back, That’s unmitigated good news. And Helen soon will be, insh’Allah. Her youngest son Fergus has recently got his driving license. He’ll go out to the airport to fetch her this evening. We’re going to visit a care home on Wednesday.

 

Knitting has progressed reasonably well, but I still have one more scallop to do, to finish today’s task. I am confident that I can. Today was much given over to waiting in for packages and then snatching a brief, late nap.

 

Biden: Anonymous (comment yesterday): “feebleness” wasn’t my idea. Apparently it has been suggested by someone – someone sympathetic – in Washington that two trips to Europe in quick succession would be too taxing for the President. Alas, I have forgotten to whom that opinion was ascribed. And alas, he is both Head of State, as such clearly due at the Coronation, and an Irish-loving politician. I continue to think that my solution (see yesterday) would solve the problem. I think Clinton had some idea of how the Northern Ireland Loyalist community felt about Irish-loving presidents, and kept himself in the background. Maybe I flatter him. He sent over the excellent General Mitchell to chair the negotiations, who began by insisting that all the major participants eat lunch together every day. Clinton would do fine as a presidential stand-in for the anniversary. Biden, indeed, is likely to irritate the Protestants further, and their cooperation is still needed. 

 

Wordle: I scored three today, but WordleBot was unimpressed. My starters gave me three browns, two vowels and a consonant. As always, my struggle was to think of any word for the next line which fully qualified.  Apparently (according to WordleBot) there were lots of other possibilities so it was just luck that I hit on the right one. Rachel and Thomas did as well. Roger and Theo were the outliers with five. Four elsewhere. The NYT has stripped Mark of his statistics, as they did me.