Quiet times

1 Peaceful and unpeaceful. Let's begin with the latter if only to conclude with the former. The young quandam wife is living in her grandmother's flat, her grandmother being in Australia, with her two children. Her onetime husband still lives in, has the key to, the married quarter. Given that her story is true, the young man (22) needs medical care, medical to include attention to what's inside the head.

2 I visited with a woman who has taken the caseworkers' course, who has taken cases for the RBL, and who may take a case or two for SSAFA. The woman's father took the older daughter to the park. We took our tea and chatted. The story, money, the immediate future. Her father and mother live in Bewbush. She will live in a flat which her father owns and which he is renting (to two rent-payers whose tenancy will be terminated). I will contact the young woman after Boxing Day.

3 And so to a peaceful evening. I wrote two letters to people to whom I would otherwise have sent a card. I'll write a few more. I listened to more of Lohengrin. I read The Economist. And I read about the Anglo-American invasion of Algeria in November 1942, the occasion when Vichy armed forces fought, sometimes hard, against the British and the Americans. (I recall that the USA maintained an ambassador in Vichy; I'll check: Google will know.)

4 Giles, Helen, Ashley, and maybe one of Ashley's offspring - singular form only ? - will arrive early afternoon. Between now and then I will eschew cycling and get on with some jobs. Ironing, yet more cards, tidying - that sort of thing. There may be time for a 10-mile ride later on. And after they have left, then I reckon that I should go to the gymnasium. (Yesterday, my companion, who works in CVS, spoke about fora. I think of one bus, two bi.)

5 I keep an eye on the reports of the elections in Thailand. And, as I key, one thought leads to another. I wonder about the connection between religious belief and the forms of government. In western Europe (or, as it was once known, Christendom) we remember the Enlightenment. I wonder to what extent there is a connexion between secularism and a movement from autocracy towards what we understand as democracy. (I remember too that it is not yet 100 years since women could vote in general elections in the UK. In France, remember, women became entitled to vote in 1945.)

6 When in Rome, wrote the august mentor, do what the Romans do. Follow the local (Roman) practice. And take a large handkerchief to dinner (lest the meal include compulsory sheep's eyes).

The Close is peaceful.

Stayathome.