Have just seen an interesting piece of research from Canada about how to improve memory. Apparently the most effective technique is to repeat the item out loud to maximize your probability of remembering it. I’m not looking forward to my next visit to the doctor with piles. I have visions of older patients taking it in turn in the waiting room to stand up and shout out their problem so that they haven’t forgotten it by the time they get face to face with their doctor. I’ll try to plan my visits at the same time as Jez. When he shouts erectile dysfunction, other patients will stop sniggering about my piles. And there will be no need for the lady suffering the menopause to shout. We will have heard her snarling at the receptionist as she checks in.

    A woman on a salary of £75,000/annum is seeking compensation for unfair treatment at work. No problem so far, if as she claims the culture at the company was ‘deeply predatory and misogynistic’. But her next claim changed our view a tad. Apparently she was ‘manipulated’ into having an affair with an older married boss. That had a familiar ring. It reminded us of a lady who agreed to have sex with a man who offered her £10,000 for the act. He then changed the offer to £10 at which stage she exclaimed, “ what sort of woman do you think I am?” His reply summed it up.  “We’ve already identified what sort of woman you are. All that remains is to find out your price.”

    Jeremy Corbyn’s kinder politics got put into perspective at the Conservative conference as delegates were spat on and ‘egged’ by a mob of JC’s supporters. Still, it could have been much worse. Air France executives were mobbed by violent left leaning protesters after the word ‘redondant’ passed their lips. They left the scene with their clothes in tatters, helped over a fence by gendames. At least the French police gave a helping hand, because they don’t generally interfere with strikers. How many arrests were made at the scene of the assault? Take a guess. Mind you, hearing David Cameron’s speech, where he did an impression of Mother Teresa in his support for the poor, it might have carried more weight if he’d been dressed in rags. Maybe he rewrote the speech after Theresa May’s impression of Attila the Hun as she discussed – I use the word in jest – immigration. Perhaps JC has introduced a new type of politics – EP or Extreme Politics. So far left or so far right that the centre ground no longer exists. We’re beginning to consider Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as moderates!

    It appears that wine sales are booming on trains and in retail outlets near to stations, particularly on Fridays. Passengers are leaving work on POETS day and beginning their weekends on the journey home. ‘Let the wine take the strain’ could soon be train operator’s slogan, wine orders placed with seat bookings. Let’s hope drivers don’t take it to heart on their last shift of the week.         

    At a personal level, I’m heartened by research from the University of Notre Dame in Australia. My DIY skills cause constant amusement amongst our crowd and I have to admit to causing a fair bit of damage over the years, and we don’t have a horizontal shelf in the house. But now I understand why. Mother’s who suffer stress during pregnancy give birth to less coordinated children. My mother did suffer stress. Not a strong person, she didn’t cope easily with the World War 2. I plan to revisit my toolbox in case any little jobs need doing.

    Hoping for improvement, I turned on BBC’s Question Time. It was a mistake. As an ex-watcher due to the quality of the panels, it took me a minute to recognize Charlotte Church. She used to be a singer. Then she made her contributions and I remembered why I’d turned off months previously. Who else knew that the refugee crisis stemmed from global warming? I thought Russell Brand was scraping the barrel, but clearly it’s not yet reached the bottom. It cannot be long before Brand and Church become business gurus, at least in the eyes of the BBC. This would enable them to become sidekicks of Lord Sugar in the comedy programme The Apprentice. With Sugar seeking profit, Brand condemning the concept of profit, Church blaming profit for global warming and the brightest young entrepreneurs in Britain proving they’re not, it would be a monster hit.