Sunday, 18th October, 2026
Gorgeous morning but, unfortunately, Pauline has been booked for an Endoscopy first thing tomorrow morning. We should be in Oldham marking the anniversary of her Mum’s death 16 years ago now which signalled our move away from the North of England.
She was the most lovely lady and she is always in my memory even if we can’t acknowledge her memory properly this month. She is permanently on my Office wall looking down on my efforts kindly and we will get up there soon to pay our respects to her memory.
My Mother in Law lived to the age of 96 inspite of losing her husband in 1961 and living a really hard life for many years. She showed amazing resilience over so many years. We always believed she lived to such a great age by dint of her incredible inner strength and determination. It commanded the greatest respect and memories of her are dominated by her incredible spirit.
I wrote recently that we were going to address the practicalities of resilience as the world around us becomes more unstable. There has been a significant shift in UK Resilience thinking over the last few years. The idea is often called a “whole of society” approach, meaning government, businesses, communities and households all have a role in coping with major disruptions.
Households are urged to address home resilience as the world around us becomes more unstable. They are thinking of Climate Change producing weather changes which threaten food production and threaten power generation and delivery. They are also thinking of world political instability threatening food imports and power imports and communications. You only need an expansionist Putin to send a couple of submarines to cut power, gas and internet cables under sea to completely collapse our normal world. He is already testing the boundaries and renewed European support for Ukraine will push him to be more reckless.
You may find this fanciful but we are taking it seriously and even more so since we lost our internet feed for a while. Every major event in our house revolves around internet use and we were left floundering without it. Even if you are in the dark ages still, Dear Reader, think about a shopping trip. Can you walk it if there is no fuel for your car for a while? When you get to the supermarket, can you buy anything without use of your credit card? Can the shop sell you anything without their powered and internet connected sales points?
By this stage, you will think I am stark raving mad but it may just be that I have the last laugh if the worst comes to the worst. Above is what we are urged to collect and retain for emergencies. I’ve ordered emergency lighting which is essential and a power bank to recharge our smart phones which could be used for internet access as well. We are building a store cupboard collection of tinned foods, water and medicines. We have both electricity and gas for cooking. Hopefully, both won’t go down simultaneously otherwise, I will be lighting a firepit outside.
If you think we are preparing for a risk that will never come, just think about Trump, Musk, Putin, Xi Jinping or Netanyahu and how all that is working out just now. It is hard to think of more fertile ground for World War 3 than we are in at the moment. A young man sent me this from Florida this morning. It is a photo of the latest launch of Space-X. Musk is a fascist and has delusions of grandeur. Don’t underestimate his ability to influence world instability for his own ends.