Sunday saw the the start of the creation of two Christmas puddings. I will use one at the Christmas Carols party we host and the other on Christmas Day. The recipe was based on a Delia one but with a bit of forced improvisation.

At 10.45 AM, the family all trooped up the hill to what is known as the Cross, the heart of our village of Holt near Wrexham where the war memorial stands. My nine year old son Joshua knows about the World Wars and is, as I write, penning an essay plan for me on “for who was Dunkirk a disaster?” Even soon to be five Jaya is aware of something of our history as a nation and also as a family.

Watching Rachel Reeves this morning it is quite clear that my wife and I are going to see material tax rises over the next year despite our household income actually falling. My proposed solution is to sell up in wet and windy Wales and move to our mountain eco palace in sunny Greece where we could either retire on our savings and home school the kids or carry on working and, actually, pay less tax. The Mrs has no plan B but I fear plan B it will be. We will just soldier on and feel cheated and unhappy.

It was a week ago that my local GP’s practice referred me to Lucy Letby’s old stomping ground, the Countess of Chester for an appraisal of what we know is a cateract in my right eye. I received an email on the NHS app which I use telling me that I would be told a date by 22 December, i.e within a couple of months. Or if the Shipmans were too busy to let me know I was to call them after the 22nd to give them a nudge.

I know it looks a bit like pooh and the name is somewhat off putting and the fruit look hideous and are only harvested when they are bletted, that is to say rotting. Maybe I am not selling the Nottingham Medlar very well?

On Friday, after Matt Western, the Labour MP for Warwick & Leamington declined to do anything about historic sexual abuse at Warwick School and the cover up which protected offenders, I was almost tempted to give up. But encouraged by a couple of OWs I have gone into battle yet again. For this matter affects victims not just in Warwick. I do not now how long I shall live, but I have been battling for fourteen years (not twelve as stated below) to get Warwick School’s massive historic abuse issue out into the open, so there is no way I am giving up now. This, and a couple of stockmarket fraudsters where there is unfinished businesses, are battles I shall see through to the end. Mine or theirs!

Nine folks are seriously ill in hospital after two men went on a knife rampage on a Doncaster to London train last night. 14 hours after the train stopped at Huntingdon and the cops moved in we are yet to be told anything about the two men now in custody. I hate myself this morning for thinking about Coulter’s Law.

I wrote to the MP for Warwick & Leamington, Matt Western, on 29th September about historic sexual abuse at my old school, Warwick School. A teacher who is already a convicted paedophile stands accused by seven boys of abusing them while serving at Warwick. The Police took the first statements in 2021. But the Crown Prosecution Service is just sitting on them. One of the seven has killed himself.

It is almost 40 years since I have made a pumpkin pie but last night, preparing party food for the family to watch Wrexham AFC on the telly, I had a stab.

The thing about dogs arse fruit, Nottingham Medlars in polite society, is that you need to wait until they are bletted ( that is to say gone beyond ripe towards rotten) before you pick them. Explaining that to my assistant, son and heir Joshua, made it hard to convince him to taste one.

Tonight, a kind friend is taking me to see Wrexham vs Oxford United. It really is a must win for Wrexham, yet to win a home league game this season. Natch I shall be cheering on “the town” if only to erase the pain of the last time I saw Oxford, a match where my daughter and I expected an easy win for Mighty West Ham but instead witnessed a humiliating cup thrashing.

Perhaps this article worked. Matt Western’s office has tonight acknowledge my 29 September email. This morning I published: I wrote by email to Matt Western the Labour MP for Warwick & Leamington about historic sexual abuse at Warwick School on 29th September. I have sent messages on X but all to no avail. Today I called both his constituency office and his Westminster office after 11 AM in the morning.

The fatter of our two brother and sister cats Quincey often sleeps on the ironing board on the upstairs landing. If he finds a cardboard box that might become a temporary resting place but in the darkest corner of the utility room he has a new place of sleep.

Do the Daily Mail and its reporter Sabrina Miller have no shame?

As we see Hamas gunmen return to the streets of Gaza,rounding up and executing opponents I worry. As I see hundreds of thousands of Islamists and useful idiots march through London rejecting the two state peace deal and demanding a final solution from the River to the Sea I worry. As Hamas leaders openly say they will break the Donald Trump deal agreed last week,I worry. But for now all I care about is getting the hostages living and dead back to Israel.