2015 — 18 October: Sunday
Judging by the latest overnight batch of family photos1 the weather on the other side of the planet is the same as here at the moment. I kept my patio door open long enough, this morning, to greet my squirrel and observe his calisthenic routine as he negotiated the garden gate in a way cats are unable to. But it's too cool to keep the door open.
A nearer bit of my family rang me yesterday evening to report his recovery (more or less) from a throat infection, and the fact that it's nearly "safe" to switch off my Toyota Yaris insurance. That times out at the end of the month in any case. The DVLA has already told me I'm no longer its registered keeper. Indeed, I also have their partial refund of the six-month Road Tax I bought last month. I believe I'm still waiting for a similar bit of paper from Uncle ERNIE on behalf of dear Mama's little stash this month, too.
I foresee another trip to my bank, if only I can remember where it is before I lose either bit of paper...
A-stewing...
... I must go. I do like my plum and cranberry topping for my serial breakfast cereal. My dentist's opinion is less enthusiastic. Perhaps I can use some to clean the stainless steel sink? That, and some of yesterday's phlogiston, should do nicely.
I contend there exists...
... a set of people on this planet with more curious focused enthusiasms than I have. (Proof.)
Goodness gracious me
Or do I mean "Golly!"?
That explains everything, surely?
Given my choice...
... of reading yesterday evening, this strikes me as far more worthy of a "Golly!"
My copy began life (as it were) in the Kings College library. Was withdrawn from there and rescued into the Chelsea College of Science and Technology library. In July 1966 it was in reserve stock "available on request". Quite how it ended up in a charity shop in Eastleigh in 1992 is anybody's guess. It's "Reproduced by DUOPAGE PROCESS in the U.S. of America" by the Micro Photo Division of the Bell & Howell Company in Cleveland, Ohio and is, I admit, pretty crappy quality.
And it has a different cover :-)
It now also has its first review.
There's a potentially valuable...
... paragraph in an AgeUK leaflet that my chum Roger has just pointed out to me. It suggests I may not actually have to repay the £20,000 or so in "Attendance Allowance" payments that dear Mama managed to clock up during the last 4.5 years of her "life" in the Winchester care home. So far, the DWP has merely asked me to tell them2 when she entered the care home. But now that I've read this...
Whether or not you can receive AA in a care home depends on how the fees are being met. If you are paying the full charges in a care home, with or without the help of benefits like Pension Credit, you can claim and receive AA provided you fulfil the other conditions for it. You can also get AA if you are self-funding apart from contributions from the NHS towards nursing care payments.
... which precisely describes the situation she was in, I can honestly say I await any further salvos from the DWP with equanimity.
I will repay any State benefits paid in error (the two State pensions payments plopped into her bank account after her death, for obvious example). But I take great exception to any attempt by the State to reclaim legitimately-paid benefits. Her "AA" entitlement had already been assessed and established by Social Services in Wombourne before I took control of her health and financial affairs.
I didn't...
... like the sound of this. Though I was amused by the comment that "This article has produced, even by Grauniad standards, a remarkably civilised commentariat response, presumably because it was of interest mainly to academics, mathematicians and other reasonably civilised people". (Link.)
Can a mathematician ever be "reasonably civilised"? Just askin' :-)
I live in hope...
... that the unusual shape and more vertical orientation of this mouse...
... may help me deal with the incipient rodent-induced aches and pains in my "mousing wrist".