A cloudy start to the day, but the sky soon cleared as the sun rose into the sky. An early breakfast, and then a drive to UHW with Clare for her post-op checkup. Finding a space was easier today, despite the flow of cars entering the car park. I joined Clare in the waiting room, which was already filling up with patients for early day appointments. I had to stand outside after a while, along with others accompanying patients. Three quarters of an hour later she emerged, and we made our way to the car park. It was twenty past ten when we reached home, not quite enough time to walk to Mass at St Catherine's, so I drove there feeling guilty about not walking, but I simply hate to be late for worship. I drove home afterwards, then walked to Chapter to collect this week's veggie bag. Then I cooked curried lentils with sweetcorn on the cob plus veg for lunch.
A second appointment for Clare at UHW mid afternoon for another bone density scan, our third trip to UHW in 30 hours. I had enough time in hand before leaving to watch the finale of 'Nightsleeper', gripping right to the end. In addition to being a first rate thriller written in six episodes corresponding to the journey time of the night sleeper train from Glasgow to London, it portrayed the activity of the National Cyber Security in full operational cyber warfare more in all its presumably fictional jargon filled complexity, near Victoria Station in London (in real life) where a high speed runaway train is programmed to arrive and precipitate a major disaster on the station and its neighbourhood.
A dozen people are trapped on the train, each with their own background stories. As the hours pass and a grisly fate seems to await them all, their masks drop to reveal the truth of the real person beneath the lies. The truth behind the motives of the crime fighters at HQ is also revealed, and it's revealed that malware they have previously created for stress testing systems prone to cyber attack is being used against them. Several alternative ways of preventing a catastrophe are discussed, with perilous consequences. It seems that political and security leaders will sacrifice the few to save the many, a 'less worse' expedient solution. This also seems to be what compels the train trapped individuals to hide behind their masks, with tragic consequences for some.
There is however, an uncompromising heroine who succeeds against the odds in finding an innovative solution that forestalls catastrophe, just. It's worth watching for dialogue revealing the best and worst of intentions, and highest moral values. It's an engaging philosophical essay in the guise of a spy thriller. My only complaint is that the background music resembled closely the frenetic genre of music behind the 'Call of Duty' series, 'The Capture' and several others.
Thinking of 'less worse' the Israelis presumably launched a devastating hi-tech attack on Hizbollah in Lebanon, conning their militia into using a large batch of paging devices containing embedded military grade explosives. Nine dead and a couple of thousand people maimed. Following this, a similar attack on digital comms handsets today. There have been fears that Israel would experience even more attacks from Hizbolla's army in Lebanon which have intensified since the war on Gaza. The large scale undermining of its secure communications ability weakens its ability to wage war, but at what cost? So many people will be put out of action, if not disabled. There's bound to be a risk that Hizbolla's allies and proxy forces will launch damaging revenge attacks on Israel, escalating the conflict, with what consequence? Reality and fiction seem even closer today than 36 hours ago.
Having delivered Clare to UHW in good time for her appointment, I waited for her with an Americano and a slice of fruit cake in the main concourse area of the hospital. We were home again by five, and after another slice of cake and a drink, I went out for a walk in the park. The pair of chairs fly-tipped late last night had migrated from next to the waste bin where they were dumped to the woodland edge of the field, for no apparent reason. There are a few spaces within the surrounding trees and undergrowth which are used from time to time by youngsters as a secret place to hang out, and maybe also by homeless people camping wild. They are in good condition. I wonder where they came from?
After supper, I spent time writing, and recorded next week's Reflection and Morning Prayer before turning in for the night.
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