Donald Trump is only the start....

If you've read my last post you'll know that I'm trying to acclimatised myself to the sub zero temperatures I and my mate expect to experience when we plunge deep into the Arctic Circle in January. I needn't have bothered. According to the latest meteorological reports,  Svalbard is likely to be as warm as the Persian Gulf this winter.

Strictly speaking that shouldn't be a problem since global warming may do a lot of things but it doesn't change the earth's tilt or its magnetic field. We'll still have an opportunity to see the Northern Lights although the prospect of a Polar Bear joining me in my sauna to cool off is somewhat disturbing.

This week has been full of incident. On Monday I caught a cold. I still have it. I now know what the death rattle sounds like.

On Tuesday I was robbed at a local cash point at 5 pm on a crowded street. Someone manage to whip my cash card from under my nose having previously clocked my pin number. In less than 10 mins I was 440 pounds lighter. I immediately reported the incident to my bank: was it a theft, mugging or what? They cancelled my card and after talking to their fraud people all the money was refunded the same day. I received a replacement cash card 2 days later. Hugely grateful to Halifax Bank for being so effective and efficient. I reported the incident to the Met Police on line and a very nice young PC called round on Friday to take down my details. I haven't been near an outside cash point since. From now on it's an inside job.

Then my iPhone 6 packed up - I can't receive calls. I can make them and send and receive text but  anyone phoning me gets a disengaged tone. Someone unkindly said what's new when I told them. I tried all the tricks Apple's on line help page recommended, including returning the phone to its factory settings. That was weird because having done that I found I gained some new features and lost old ones even though I have the latest iOS. A visit to the Apple shop is on the cards.

Then our electric hob and oven went on Wednesday. Replacing the blown socket fuse with another didn't help as it also blew. Our immediate thought was that there was something shorting in either the hob or oven - could be expensive. The missus bought some new fuses from our local electrical store - so convenient. After replacing the fuse again everything is now hunky - dory.

The week ended well. Ed Balls was eliminated from "Strictly".