Stalemate

Another 30+C clear blue sky day of sunshine. It stayed warm overnight with the usual sleep interruptions from my bladder and painful shoulder. Rubbing the joint with Voltarol when the discomfort woke me up in  the night, made a difference however, but robbed me of an hour's sleep. The house next door but one is having work done on its roof. A work gang started before eight this morning. Scaffolding poles banging against the terrace walls with a thump woke me up, together with the loud non-stop talking of the gang leader, continuing all morning. If this was Switzerland a policeman would have been summoned to tell the gang to work without disturbing the domestic peace.

Only Fran came to study with Clare after breakfast. I confined myself to the front room and fell asleep for an hour and a half after saying Morning Prayer. I started to wake up after Fran left. Thankfully for a change, I escaped the effect of sleep loss. Clare cooked mackerel for lunch, with red cabbage and brown rice, followed by raspberries with ice cream and chocolate sauce to follow. We ate in the garden, and when the breeze died down it felt really hot under the sunshade, the kind of heat I associate with Spain.

After lunch, a walk to the shops on Cowbridge Road East with a stop to collect prescription items from the pharmacy in King's Road before buying a few more items I needed. I still can't find a suitable antiseptic liquid to replace TCP since the supply chain broke down. I meant to ask in Boots this afternoon but there was a queue to be served so long it snaked around the store. I'll try again another day. Walking the streets with the sun still casting short shadows was a bit like going near a furnace on times. Rather than extend my walk into the park, I returned home straightaway, to shelter in the relative coolness of the house. After supper, I went out and walked for an hour to complete the rest of my daily distance before settling down for the night. The sunset was spectacular, made special by the sound of the Cathedral bell ringing practice in the distance. It was over 32C in Bute Park this afternoon, a record breaking high temperature for May,  Europe is heating up faster than anticipated, an indication of things to come.

Despite peace talks during a cease fire between Iran and America fighting over access to the Straight of Hormuz and to Iranian ports continues, very little oil traffic gets through and the economic fall out grows and gets more serious in its effect. Trump's team makes optimistic noises about imminent progress, but in effect there has been no change. It seems the Americans are trying to talk their way out of a stalemate in an attempt to quell the rising price of oil. Israel keeps punishing Lebanon in its war against Hezbollah, with cease fire talks supposed to continue in the background. Iran threatens to extend the war beyond the region's borders if American and Israeli aggression continues. It has shown its military effectiveness with missile and drone attacks across the Middle East, and has Russia's discreet background support. 

The US  mid-term elections in November will no doubt reflect dissatisfaction over the war and the economy under Trump, and may well shift the balance of support away from him and his costly Middle Eastern interventions. How this war may actually be brought to an end in such circumstances is unpredictable. Chaos has spread throughout the region, with Iran's allies, for reasons of survival or taking revenge against US backed Gulf States, no longer fully under control of the leadership in Tehran. Gulf States which have benefited from their relationship with America in the past are seeing their economies and infrastructure damaged. How will this influence their partnership with and reliance on the United States in future? Whatever happens in the mid-term elections, future relationships seem unpredictable.