Sanders Blog

Sunday, 21st April, 2024

If nothing else, you have to admit 800 weeks at 7 times a week of absolute drivel is at least impressive for its persistence. It has far outlasted my expectations and, having come this far, it is difficult to give up now. Sorry. The next celebration will be at Week 832 or 16 full years. Set your diaries and calendars. I’ll have to organise a Blog Party. Of course, you, Dear Reader, will be the prime guest.

My friend, Kevin, is out on his 5th trip to Benidorm this year. Declining his kind invitations each time, we are planning trips to Thessaloniki in Northern Greece and to Athens + islands on a second trip. When we started our Greek flights back in 1981, we were relatively poor and we had big, self-imposed responsibilities. We had a large mortgage, a car loan, a savings and investment programme for the future, private healthcare insurance and holidays were done on the cheap.

I always booked the cheapest flights I could find. Price was the primary decider. As a consequence, we were always flying at unsocial hours with less trustworthy airlines and landing at difficult times with hours to wait for connections. Monarch Airlines was a popular one but I wasn’t beyond booking Lithuanian Airlines if needs be. We certainly had some hairy experiences.

I remember using a flight seat bucket shop seller – Avro who usually sold me Dan Air or Airtours flights. They were always from Manchester to Athens and left late on Friday night after school, getting to Athens around 3.00 am with time to get a cheap bus ride down to Piraeus to buy the cheapest ferry tickets to an island where we booked simple hotels for next to nothing. We had fantastic experiences and it makes the luxury of our travel these days all the more sweet. We really appreciate not having to do things on the cheap now.

This morning, we have been forward booking airport Lounges. In the 1980s, we slept on beach mats on the airports’ floors. These days, our bank gives us ‘free’ access to dozens of Airport Executive Lounges. We tend to fly from Gatwick North these days and there are 5 different Lounges that our membership entitles us to.

Ten years ago, we could just turn up, wave our membership cards and walk straight in. These days, we a have learnt that it pays to pre-book and reserve a space. Non-members are charged £38.00 each for a 3 hr stay but there are so many prepared to do that it makes our pre-book fee of £5.00 well worth it. Of all the 5 possible Lounges in the North Terminal, only 2 still have availability when we want to be there.

Monday, 22nd April, 2024

Nice, sunny morning and I’m off to Shoreham-by-Sea, a delightful, small coastal town about 10 miles away to attend an appointment at Southlands Hospital. I am having an ultrasound scan although I’m not completely clear which part of me is being scanned. Hope it’s one of my best bits. I’ve been given the appointment by my GP following a recent blood test.

Got to get a chunk of my Gym work done before I go or I will be under pressure later in the day. This is one of my personality problems. It has to be done and I don’t feel comfortable until it is.

Talking about the NHS and doctors’ appointments, it’s almost impossible to believe this world – this NHS – existed. Less than 20 years ago. There is no better argument for voting for Labour.

I’m pleased to report that I had more difficulty working out the parking ticket machine this morning than I did with my scan. Why are NHS carparks so difficult to navigate? Fortunately, I was seen right on time and within 30 mins was given the immediate all-clear by the radiologist which was a relief but …. thank you all for asking.

Tuesday, 23rd April, 2024

Went out early this morning to a small, old and fairly linear village of Yapton which is on the road to the seaside town of Bognor Regis. I was going to speak to them about an invitation I have received for a Winter Covid booster because of my recent cancer treatment.

Never been to Yapton before even though it is only 15 mins drive away. As you can see, it is a pleasant but old and a bit down-at-heel village with a Co-op, a chip shop, a village hall and a pub.

What they did have was a fantastic, old fashioned Butcher’s shop where I bought thick, back bacon and pork ribs to go with artisan pork sausages to make my ‘world famous’ Cassoulet. When I say, world famous, I mean I have famously cooked it in a number of places around the world. We will serve it for Supper and you are invited, Dear Reader. You’re very welcome.

Are you old, Dear Reader? Am I? New research suggests the age at which ‘old’ kicks in is increasing. A recently published piece of research showed that when participants who were born in 1911 were 65 years old, they said the beginning of old age was 71. However, participants born in 1956 said old age begins at 74, on average, when they were 65. Recently, participants at age 74 said old age started at 76.8. For me, Dear Reader, old age begins when I meet my destiny.

Wednesday, 24th April, 2024

A bright and sunny morning but not one to be swimming in the sea. Clothes are definitely required this morning. Well, the cassoulet supper went down really well last night. You should have been here, Dear Reader.

Had to drive an elderly lady to town this morning. She wanted to go to M&S on the sea front. We parked in Waitrose carpark and walked through the town down along the linear, pop-up market stalls which appear on Wednesdays and then down the more trendy Warwick Lane with its cascade of Restaurants, informal eateries, bars and cafes. It didn’t feel terribly warm this morning although plenty of people were drinking coffee outside at the pavement tables.

The elderly lady was chauffeured back after a successful although reasonably cheap shopping trip and I got her home in time for Prime Minister’s Questions. Her cup runneth over … particularly after she settled down to order another £200.00’s worth of Summer clothes online from Lands End.

Had a weirdly unsettling dream last night that fed into an old insecurity of mine. I don’t know if this will mean anything to readers but I’ve always had a strange feeling of vulnerability in houses. We build a sense of security within the frail walls of our homes when there is little between us as we sleep and the cold winds of the streets chasing along outside. Although I came from a comfortable, middle class, family home as a child, I experienced some fairly dilapidated rented accommodation as a student and as a young teacher.

The property above, behind the sandwich shed which used to be a hairdressers, was where I paid £5.00 per week for 2 rooms – the two windows downstairs on the right of the smaller photo below – when I started teaching. It was horrible but all I could get at the time. The little photo below is taken from the property sale site when it was valued at over £300,000 and the 2nd most expensive property in the street which tells you a lot about the other houses.

I have had this recurring dream across my life ever since, where my subconscious seems to liken poor housing to the fragility of camping which I also hated. I am definitely someone who needs his creature comforts and the certainty of 4, well constructed walls around me. Last night the insecurity of my student flat morphed into the horrendous property I rented in my early teaching years and presented itself like an out-of-body experience where I watched a young couple enter a rented room with huge gaps in the walls and damp on the floors and yet they seemed oblivious to it and were intent on enjoying their new found freedom. I woke up feeling shaky and unclean.

This syndrome really establishes why I like new build, latest-standards homes with the best insulation, the most efficient heating and air conditioning, quality, modern materials built to exacting standards.

Thursday, 25th April, 2024

Lovely evening in our Marina yesterday which boded well for today. Currently, it is a nice morning of cloud and sunshine.

Went to Sainsburys and was shocked to find the Chicken Breasts were security protected. In Sainsburys!! I know that Lidl has manned gun towers on the roof but shop lifters at Sainsburys!

Times must be hard. Certainly prices of some things are soaring for different reasons. Brexit-broken supply chains play a part but climate change has also had a significant effect on olive oil and coffee beans. I’m currently trying to find some new coffee beans because I am bored with my current ones. These three bags of coffee beans to try out cost £21.50 which is 50% more than I was paying 2 years ago. Olive oil is more than double the price 2 years ago.

I drink quite a lot – maybe too much – coffee each day. I cannot drink it unsweetened. I use sweeteners. I haven’t used sugar since the early 1970s. In cooking, we use Splenda powder and for many years, I have used Sweetex tablets in drinks at a rate of 3 per cup. Recently, there have been doubts raised about the effects of artificial sweeteners on our gut health so I’ve decided to monitor my intake. Over today, I drank a total of 17 drinks and included 33 Sweetex tablets. Is that too many? Probably. It may well be a bit to late for me but it will be interesting to see if I can kick the habit after all these years

Supposed to have had a discussion with my GP about Monday’s scan results but it has been postponed and I am booked for a phone review next week. Suggests the initial radiographer’s observations were accurate and there is no great need for concern.

Friday, 26th April, 2024

Out early to a high street branch of a Private Investment Bank to increase our investments in the new tax year. We went in during the first week after April 6th but it was under such pressure that we have had to wait two weeks for an appointment. This morning, we were there for 9.00 am and seen fairly promptly.

In July last year, I managed to invest in a 2 year fixed rate bond at 6.05% and two, 2 year fixed rate ISAs at 5.35%. These investments were taken out at a time when inflation (CPI) was 6.4%. At that time, I expected inflation to fall and wrote so in my Blog. With 14 months still on that fixed rate, we have been able to put in a second year’s 2 x £20,000 under the 5.35% ISA wrapper. Inflation (CPI) is currently 3.2% and expected to fall to around 2% in the next few months. So, even at this point, our investments have gone from small earnings deficit to comparably large earnings surplus over the 10 months so far.

Inflation rates are absolutely critical to earnings and savings rates. In March 2023, inflation (CPI) was 10.1%. Our Teachers Pensions are uprated by CPI each year. It used to be RPI inflation rate at one time but deliberately reduced by the Tories to CPI which doesn’t include housing/mortgage costs. Ten years of 10.1% inflation would totally wipe out anyone’s savings over that time. The same would double our Teachers Pension.

Although it is a pittance and one of the worst State Pensions in Europe, the Triple Lock increase on State Pensions has seen it increase by 60% over the past 12 years. We rather treat it like pocket money and can’t imagine how someone could actually live on it but, for the first time for many years, our investments will have earned more than our joint state pensions and will continue to do so next year as well which feels rather nice after years of almost no earnings at all.

Just to emphasise that money isn’t everything and to remind me of my mortality, the postman delivered two packages when we got home. The National Bowel Cancer Tests arrived for the last time automatically. In two years time when it would be next due, I will be 75 and will have to specifically request it. Of course, I will do so …. if I’m still alive.

Sunday, 14th April, 2024

Sunday, Sunday here again … but I won’t be lazin on a Sunday afternoon. There are too many things to do. It’s warm but rather grey today so far. A couple of years ago on this day we were eating Lunch outside in the sunshine garden. I don’t think we’ll be doing that today.

I don’t know what you think about Amazon, the online retailer. I first came into contact with it just over 15 years ago. I bought Pauline an Amazon Kindle. I love all things I.T. and we were travelling abroad for 6 months at a time. We were both taking boxes of books with us in the car and the Kindle offered the chance to ditch the books and read them electronically. It was an immediate step forward. The Kindle was/is small, light and will carry thousands of books at any one time.

She is constantly buying, downloading and storing books to her library and gets through more than one a week. Her Kindle even has a free internet connection to download books at any time from anywhere although the 3G service will not last much longer. It saves me a fortune because almost all the books she downloads are free.

I must admit, we resisted buying generally from Amazon in the early days but are Amazon-aholics nowadays. The initial fear that they were more expensive is either less significant than we thought or we are just becoming more self indulgent than before. We pay a monthly fee for Amazon Prime which has two benefits. Firstly, we access the Prime Video platform on TV but also everything I order from Amazon comes delivery ‘free’ and almost always ‘next day’. If I search the web for something I want, invariably, Amazon will come up as a potential stockist which I know will make the process easy and quick.

The idea on which Amazon was founded and developed is brilliant. Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Automation were the future, are becoming the present and are definitely offering exciting development.

The one weaker link in the chain at the moment is delivery to our door. We have an Amazon depot a bout three miles away and their vans are everywhere but it is not the most cost effective way to do it. The poor drivers are pushed almost beyond their limits and earn just a pittance plus the pressure for space on the already busy roads is a problem.

In the past fortnight, Pauline has bought and downloaded 4 books and we have jointly bought and had delivered 14 items. I can order things up to about 10.00 pm and they are delivered the next day for ‘free’. I can’t wait to see all those drivers get better jobs, all the vans taken off the roads and most Amazon parcels being delivered to my door by drone. If we can fight wars with drones, we can deliver purchases.

Just 3 of those14 items have been returned. That is another thing which Amazon do well. Returning goods is simple, ‘free’ and quick. There is no obligation to have a reason other than change of mind. We download a QR code to our phones, take the item, unwrapped, to a Post Office, or Hub and the refund is made within minutes. Everything is in place to encourage returning custom. Why didn’t I think of that? Bezos, who founded Amazon in his garage just 30 years ago, recently sold a few shares in the company for $8.5 billion and the company is valued overall at just under $1.9 trillion. Soon they’ll be talking serious money!

Monday, 15th April, 2024

Well it’s turned a bit chilly again and we had an absolute cloudburst in the middle of the morning. The shorts have been put back in the wardrobe for a day or two. I’ve also had to tell my beans, which are rapidly shooting, to slow down a bit.

I grow all kinds of herbs both for cutting fresh and for freeze storing. There are some it is just not worth growing. One of the most popular herbs in Greek cooking and in fish cooking is Dill or, officially, Dill-Weed. It has a delightfully mild aniseed flavour. It is a large, frond type plant which needs a lot of space and staking. I find it is easier to just buy it. Asda sells huge bunches. I bought 4 today for £4.00. Certainly not worth the effort of growing at home.

I’ve hurt my back this morning. I’m now wandering around hunched over like an old man. Oh, I am an old man … I just don’t want to look like it. I did it by taking an old (2yrs) garden parasol base to the local tip. There was nothing wrong with it other than it weighed 45 kgs and was a nightmare to move around as a woman instructed me to do when the sun moved.

We have two, garden parasols – a circular one and a large rectangular one. This latter came with a heavy, concrete base which nearly killed me to move around. The other came with a wheeled base + handle to pull it into position. Yesterday, we bought another of those and today I made the ultimate sacrifice by lifting this 100 lb lump of concrete from the patio into the boot of my car. As I drove away to the local tip, I knew I had a problem. I approached one of the workers there who made light work of taking the rock out of my boot and tossing it into a skip. That’s the second time I felt old today.

Earlier, I was chatting to an old friend from Greece. He is an Englishman from Bexhill in East Sussex but for the decade or more we were in our house on Sifnos, he & his wife were renting a house on Paros. On a clear day, the island of Paros was clearly seen from Sifnos and we pretended we could see each other as we talked. Just as we have left, so has he. The wages of Brexit bite deeply.

I spent 30 years on the island of Sifnos and remember every inch of it. This morning a friend and chef on the island posted a couple of photos that took me back there immediately. The first is a taverna with the picture of a tree-silhouette and the words Το Λιοτρίβι / The Liotrivi underneath. The Liotrivi is The Olive Press and it was a delightful restaurant. The second photo is also taken from the village of Artemonas and is of the Bakery & Zacharoplasteio. Wonderful bread and sweets made there.

Tuesday, 16th April, 2024

Lovely morning. Going to do some gardening. I’m setting the under-gardener on to giving the hedge its first trim of the season. She does it so well. We’ve got a cooler but drier 10 days to come so not going to do more than preparation at the moment. All feels rather parochial and hemmed in at the moment.

Talking to my former Greek expat friend yesterday took me back to this week in 2013 when I was driving from Mulhouse in Alsace, across the border into Switzerland, through the 17km Gotthard Tunnel, round Lake Lucerne, into Italy and round Lake Como, on to the Milan ring road and on to a hotel in Parma which is where, ironically, my next door neighbours are from.

Received a surprise letter/email yesterday inviting me to have a Covid Booster in the next few weeks. They say I have been identified as more vulnerable because my immune system will have been weakened by the Hormone treatment and Radiotherapy of last year. Apparently, I am only just in that category because the treatment was within the past 6 months. I’ve booked one because I am happy to have my antibodies boosted. I’ve got an ultrasound scan next week.

Wednesday, 17th April, 2024

Gorgeous morning of blue sky and strong sunshine. I was woken just after 6.00 am with a Whatsapp message on my phone. It was from an ex-pupil of mine who is now in her 40s. She was a very bright girl who I took under my wing but who was not allowed to go to university at the time.

She is currently a Teaching Assistant in Oldham and is married with children. She has continued to work and, last night, was recognised by Sheffield Hallam University for her outstanding efforts. Although she has my mobile number, she still calls me Sir. She sends me love and kisses but daren’t tell her husband. She still wants my approbation for what we both saw as her initial failure to capitalise on her ability as she redresses that failure now. Might try to see her when I drive to the North – hopefully soon.

Another day of gardening as everything is beginning to grow away. In North Yorkshire, my friend, JohnR, is extolling the beauty of the early flowers on his 50 year old cherry tree. As I pointed out to him, in Sussex they would be considered late flowering. KevinS on the northern tip of Scotland tells me he has another month to wait.

Still, JohnS lives in the beautiful, North Yorkshire village of Catterick which he sent me this photo of this morning. It has old world charm and gentility.

Thursday, 18th April, 2024

Beautiful, sunny morning. Such a lovely change from recent times. The sun streaming in through the conservatory windows and over the Breakfast table bodes well for the day to come. In contrast, I was thinking about death and loss this morning. Sending a sympathy card to the husband of Pauline’s recently deceased relative in Lancashire this morning. The funeral will be in the next 10 days. Can’t believe that someone so full of life and joy of life is so suddenly no more. They live on in memories, of course, but you can’t kiss memories. My mother died 16 years ago next week and the memories definitely soften and fade over time.

We are all programmed to stay alive. Self preservation is genetically programmed into all life. Sometimes I pretend to myself to be blasé about my longevity but I know, deep down, that death is just a huge void which I do not wish to enter before I have to. Trying hard to keep fit, to eat well, to exercise, to keep my brain alert and challenged.

I am a typical man and reluctant to visit doctors but I have a Carer who is keen on these things and pushes me to do the right thing. I have been doing the Biennial Bowel Screening which involves those aged 60 – 74. I received my latest this morning but realise I will not receive another unless I specifically request it. All these little crosses on the balance sheet like this and the driving licence renewal, move one further down the escalator of life … and I don’t like it. What about you, Dear Reader? Or am I worrying needlessly, inordinately?

Well according to today’s Daily Telegraph, I am already in the last chance saloon with only 7 years left and that’s living in one of UK’s healthiest, wealthiest places. Panic!!

Out in hot sunshine this afternoon on the road at the front of our house. Trimming the grass verges, preparing the flower beds and generally neatening up in readiness for the Summer season. We will be away for quite a bit of it so trying to do our bit now. Pauline was trimming the hedge which looks incredibly healthy and vigorous. She’s got the patience to do it carefully. I was in support role, sweeping up, removing cuttings, etc..

Friday, 19th April, 2024

Tempus Fugit. On Sunday, the Blog will begin its 500th week. Talk about Life Expectancy! Fifteen years ago, we were just returning from our 10th Easter Holiday on Sifnos but this one was different. We didn’t have to go back to work. We were retired and this was the time it first really hit us. So often, we would get back the day before work and I would be berating myself about not having prepared that presentation, not having written that report, etc. Not in April 2009. I was turning my attention to the garden and selling the house.

This photo of Kamares in Easter 2009 sums up the sort of unpredictable weather we could expect at that time but it didn’t matter. In 2011, at this time in our Greek home we were turning the underfloor heating on. We had stopped going to Greece for the weather long before. In fact, we would have been delighted this year because 3 days of rain are forecast to fall in Sifnos and the garden would already be crying our for water.

I am not an animal lover. I’d rather eat them than house them but my heart was definitely opened by this little, feral cat which adopted us in our Greek home. She was known as Mother Cat because she kept having babies – the nearest to Fatherhood I got. It really hurt us to leave her to survive each Winter unaided but we had no choice and she proved resilient enough to cope just fine. She greeted us noisily within hours of our return in the Spring after 6 months away.

I know you’ll think I’m mad but the photo I took of Mother Cat always reminds me of one of my favourite ever paintings which can be seen in Manchester. I had a large, framed copy on my walls for years at home in Huddersfield. I always go for the wild girls!

Here today it is mild but grey. I’m going to get some exercise gardening before getting some more exercise in the Gym. Talking to my friend, Julie, on the North East coast of Yorkshire this morning, she complains that she is already wearing a fleece indoors and is just about to light the log fire. I’m so grateful that we came down here. And what lovely neighbours. Everyone stops to chat as we work on the streetside lawns and flower beds. So & so is going off to Seville next week. Another is getting ‘Flu. A couple go past with their dog and worry about it getting too friendly. They know I’m not keen on dogs.

We build our lives in the details of these everyday things and so many rarely hold on to the bigger picture, the major events, the ultimate timeline of being. I, for one, will never be able to escape my past. It torments and delights me in equal measure.

Saturday, 20th April, 2024

A lovely, deceptively sunny day. The breeze has a cool edge on it. Although I went down to the Garden Centre early on this morning, I will not be tempted to buy for at least another week and even then we will have to plan around when we will be away.

Our village square always looks nice in the sunshine and the gardening team, Angmering in Bloom, work hard to maintain it with seasonal planting. Every year, the council pollard the trees so they are always late getting back into leaf which is a pity.

Living in a nice, attractive and well maintained space is so often associated with increased longevity for its residents. I noticed this article in the Huddersfield Examiner yesterday. It is a piece about the village of Uppermill near Oldham where many people still consider themselves living in Yorkshire even though it was designated Lancashire years ago. Lots of our friends and former colleagues live there. Infants born within the OL3 postcode, covering extensive areas of Uppermill, Greenfield, Diggle, and Dobcross, are predicted to live a prosperous 85 years on average whereas life expectancy nosedives to 75 years for new-borns in the OL1 region, home to parts of Chadderton, Royton and Shaw which is among the country’s lowest.

P&C need somewhere new to live. They are both in their later 80s and vulnerable for different reasons. C is in the mid stages of Dementia and P is registered Blind. Until now, each has looked after the other but that is coming to an end. C is the driver but really isn’t safe out in the car anymore. P has managed to cope brilliantly with her disability but now is not able to manage herself plus a deteriorating dementia sufferer however much she tries.

Their lovely daughter has made her later life in Florida and tries to get back regularly but has her own life to lead and it will be in America. P&C need to move on to their next stage urgently before it is too late. In Surrey, where they live, there are lots of retirement opportunities that provide for freedom and support. They are not cheap but P&C are fortunate to have the financial backing to take advantage.

At Highfields, they can have a 2-bed apartment for £530,000.00 or for Rental from £3,050 pcm. At Botanical Place, in the heart of the village/town, they would be near boutiques, cafés, and restaurants but in reach of friendly faces, listening ears and help when they needed it. When you are in your late 80s, there is no better place. In this latter place, they can buy, rent or part rent/part buy. For them, it really doesn’t matter. The big decision is making the move in their minds after so many years of totally independent living.

We will all find it hard but, in your senior years, you have to accept an element of dependence. Pride is good but can be taken too far. Children have their own lives. The parents have to move on themselves. I know my Mother actively encouraged us to go away and fight for our own lives and to leave her to sort out her own support network.

Sunday, 7th April, 2024

A lovely warm and sunny morning. Gardening and walking will happen this morning and this afternoon will be Gym and football – Man.Utd. v Liverpool. It is one of the rare occasions when I want United to lose. I would really like to see Liverpool win the League and certainly not Arsenal or City.

I must wish my friend and former Digs-mate, JohnR a happy birthday. He is 75 today which makes me feel like a youth. Thank you, JohnR. The first men (boys) in an all women’s (girls) college are pictured above in our first couple of weeks in College. Don’t know how those girls got in there. We didn’t mix with them.

Put my new shaving mirror up yesterday and this morning was the real test. It was great for a shave but … goodness I’m UGLY!! It really doesn’t do anyone any favours with such close scrutiny. What it has done is illustrate how badly I’ve been shaving all this time. I must try harder.

Before I kill myself in despair, I’m going out in the sunshine to sow parsley, plant seed potatoes and then sow some flower seeds in my cold frames. The raised beds are cleaned replenished with fresh compost and ready to go as long as we get a run of dry, warm weather.

Lovely warm and sunny afternoon. Pouring with rain in Manchester. Unfortunately, the match went to a draw which was bad for both teams. At least the garden is ready to receive guests. Got to get the patio professionally cleaned and then all the pots can be planted up and enjoyed in the sunshine.

Monday, 8th April, 2024

Another week. It’s dry and warm but not terribly sunny this morning. The highlight of the day is …. the Dentist. Well, actually, the Hygienist. Hate the Hygienist! Always hurts me and I’m only little.

Life seems to be jogging along quite slowly at the moment which can be viewed in two ways. It does feel a little boring but at least time is slowing and extending in that way. I was reading an interesting article about the sculptor, Anthony Gormley, yesterday. Like me, he is 73. Like me, he is obsessed with the passage of time. Many of his works contain the word “time” in the title. His army of silent, featureless iron figures interrogate time and the relationship between humans, geology and nature over the course of our planet’s history. He is also listening to the clock ticking on his own lifetime. At 73 he is filled with a sense of urgency to get things done.

What have I got to get done, Dear Reader? Now that would be telling although some of you will know already. Today, before crying at the Dentist, I am going to achieve world-beating sowing of seeds. I’m going to grow acres of Parsley. To me, that is quite an old fashioned herb which was served at home every Friday in a sauce with fish. I had moved on to the more exotic herbs – Oregano, Dill, Thyme, Tarragon, etc of the Mediterranean. That is until I rediscovered its flavour and was immediately won back. Of course, Parsley originates in Greece where it is known as πετροσέλινον or rock celery.

The French for parsley – persil – derives from it. Actually, I’ve just found out where the washing powder Persil got its name and it is from two of the original ingredients, sodium perborate and silicate. I remember my Mother swore by it. It was a time when people believed there were a limited number of product brands which could be trusted and relied on. Now, the market is more fluid and opaque. We don’t know without research who makes these products.

Persil is a German brand of laundry detergent manufactured and marketed by Henkel around the world except in a few countries like UK where it is manufactured and marketed by Unilever.

In Greece, we would buy almost exclusively flat leaved parsley but still prefer the curly-leafed for flavour. It is very easy to grow and used to be used by farmers to mark the lines of other, crops they had sown.

Tuesday, 9th April, 2024

Not a good night made more difficult by strong winds creaking in the roof joists. In fact, put the radio on at 4.00 am and that helped me to fall asleep. It had been forecast and I had anchored down the garden furniture, etc. but that didn’t make sleeping any easier.

Didn’t realise how bad the weather had been over night until I got up at 7.00 am to be greeted by lots of national news reports on my phone from the Mail and Express and this one from the London Evening Standard mentioning our home town, Littlehampton.

They suggested that just down the coast from us, people were having to be rescued from one of those dreadful static caravan parks that seem to be popular in coastal locations. I can’t imagine living permanently in a caravan/shed like that but some seem to like it. We didn’t have any rain but there were signs of a very high tide on the coastal path this morning with shale covering the road.

Went to the dentist yesterday for my Hygienist appointment. It struck me that I haven’t had any problems with my teeth for years. In fact, the older I get, the less concerns if have, which is nice. We have Annual Dentistry Plans which provide 2 x Hygienist + 2 x Dentist appointments each year. It is impossible to find an NHS Dentist down here as it was in Surrey. We pay £500.00 per year for the two of us to have these 4 treatments and that gives us a 20% reduction on all other work.

We go to Calm & Gentle because that’s what I require at the dentist. I need a pretty girl to hold my hand and speak soothingly to me while the dentist does his work very, very gently. It works for me.

Wednesday, 10th April, 2024

Beautiful morning of blue sky and sunshine. The strong winds have gone and normality has been resumed. In fact, the strong winds subsided quickly yesterday afternoon and we had a lovely evening of sunshine and birdsong. The beach which had been the subject of some publicity the night before looked like this at 6.00 pm as if nothing had happened.

I don’t know what you feel about internet banking. I love it. About 35 years ago, I joined the Nat.West internet banking test group. In fact, I was Tester 0001. I am comfortable and fairly confident with online control of my accounts. I know there are still some people who are not. This is becoming an increasing concern for towns that are being deserted by the major banks.

We have just two left in our nearest town of Rustington and recently Nat.West announced it was closing. That will just leave Santander for people who want to Bank in branch. This is always the problem with innovation.

When I was pushing internet use in Home-School work, the complaint was that some people couldn’t afford computers and broadband connections. They were, of course, legitimate concerns but affected so few that it could not be allowed to slow the roll out of such developments and I pushed ahead with a full Home-School Intranet platform which is still flourishing.

The FROG Intranet School Learning & Management Platform has gone on to transform lives for teachers, pupils and parents. In just the same way, Internet Banking has rather left some of the old, wrinklies behind. A little old lady came into the Post Office I was at yesterday and just couldn’t manage her money transfer herself and had to be inordinately helped by the kindly sub postmistress.

Today, even though I am fairly confident with the process, I was rather nervously awaiting the arrival of £40,000.00 from a Building Society Easy Access Account which I wanted to put into two, new ISA accounts with a private bank which I invest in. The trouble is that I had to wait almost 24hrs between pressing go from one account and seeing it arrive in another. All sorts of thoughts cross one’s mind about it going missing. Not so many years ago, a friend ‘lost’ £200,000.00 in transfer from a UK bank to a foreign bank. Can you imagine it? It eventually turned up but I bet he didn’t sleep too well in the meantime.

My £40,000.00 turned up this morning and I went down to the Private Bank offices where, ironically, online business is not available. Everything has to be done through Investment Managers with paper forms and I was told that I could have an appointment but not for 10 days because demand was so high at the beginning of the new tax year. I didn’t complain but two wrinklies in front of me kicked up a fuss because they were being forced to wait. You can’t win!

Thursday, 11th April, 2024

The awful news arrived this morning and it was no less awful for being expected. Pauline’s niece, Dawn, died over night from a stomach cancer which was diagnosed only two years ago. She was just 62, lived in Lancashire, attended Oldham Bluecoat School and hadn’t even had the chance to properly enjoy any retirement.

In contrast, we have been lucky enough to have already enjoyed 15 years of comfortable retirement and it just emphasises that there is an terrible disparity across the lives of human beings. Dawn had struggled to maintain as normal a life as she could over two years of horrible treatment which inevitably led to her death in a hospice in Nelson.

At this time in 2009, we were enjoying our first couple of weeks of freedom in our Greek home. Today, 15 years ago, we had lunch in the village square of Artemonas at Manganas Taverna. I remember those days were heady, rest-of-our-lives planning sessions that we hadn’t had time to discuss while still working.

I must admit, those plans didn’t all work out quite as we expected and there have been a number of bumps on the way but to end up on the Sussex coast has been fine. New, rest-of-our-lives planning sessions are currently taking place. The move from Yorkshire/Lancashire to Surrey and then to Sussex has settled down … for now. In this week 8 years ago, we were living from garden furniture in the kitchen, NO Sky TV and only a few wardrobes to store clothes. I hadn’t even got a coffee maker at the time.

Eight years on, perhaps life is too comfortable and we need new challenges. New directions and destinations.

This morning, we are sitting round this table planning the year out. The first job is to review our flights to Thessaloniki in June. The timings have slightly changed but the aircraft itself has completely changed and, with it, our seating plan. Have to book carpark and Airport Lounge.

Friday, 12th April, 2024

Lovely day in prospect. Hope it’s good for you, Dear Reader. In fact, the forward forecast is dry for a couple of weeks with the exception of a bit of rain on Monday. Today’s timetable starts with a trip to the fish shop – sides of Salmon, Cod loins, big piece of Tuna, bags of King Prawns. Should get us through the weekend. Mowing, edging and feeding the public lawns this morning will be a nice job in the sunshine.

Been talking to my old friend, JohnR in North Yorkshire this morning. He is two years older than me and that struck me this morning. We both retired on the same day in 2009. He celebrated by going on a walking holiday in the Lake District whereas I drove to Greece. I have been saying to myself since my cancer scare that I am taking too long to get back to previous fitness despite Gym work every day. JohnR told me this morning that he would struggle to do the Lake District walk today.

He is preparing to return to South Korea to visit his son who teaches EFL there and makes films in addition. JohnR and South Korea are something of a mismatch for me. Just shows one should never be too quick to judge.

The fishmonger is just off the beach which was looking lovely today although the tide was completely out. Walkers and their dogs had far to go. We walked down to East Beach Cafe which is housed in a rather strange, modernistic structure that looks like it was designed by a committee of 1st Year Architecture students.

We drove home for coffee and jobs to get through – Pauline in the kitchen and me in the garden. Both of us have got our Gym routines to fit in to the rest of the day as well.

Saturday, 13th April, 2024

Some lovely days in prospect. Definitely shorts and tee-shirt time now until November if we live that long. Yesterday we heard that an old friend and fellow footballer had died.

Keith Lowery, who was 6 months younger than me, died last night of ….. prostate cancer. Death brings us up short. The death of someone younger is particularly poignant. To learn that he had been suffering with prostate cancer for the past few months is distinctly scary. How lucky was I to be diagnosed early?

And yet, life goes on. Doesn’t it, dear Reader. Must be positive in the the disappearing line of time. The garden is a symbol of optimism and positivity. A trip to the Garden Centre for some fresh Sage plants to supply the freezer for the rest of the year. Sage is an old, Mediterranean herb that we use a lot but isn’t very long lived so I’m planting out and sowing seeds for my own new plants as well.

The main job today is cleaning out and tidying up the garden storage pods which have become invaluable since we converted the garage into Gym & Kitchen. These huge, simple storage pods-cum-sheds just swallow up everything from lawn mowers and garden tools to pressure washer and leaf blower, packs of backup house tiles, tins of touch-up paint, tool boxes, etc.

Sunday, 31st March, 2024

Beautiful morning. All the windows and doors are open to the sunshine. Fresh, coastal air is gently wafting through the house. My Housekeeper is taking washing to dry outside and preparing to slow roast a leg of lamb for Dinner. All is well with the world. Well, let’s not get carried away. Nearly All. Still some things to address.

We’ve reached a surprising 19C/66F this afternoon but looking at the weather forecast for the coming week, it is hard to get motivated for gardening. So much rain forecast to come and not terribly warm. At least I can start seeds off in the cold frame and hope things improve. This year I’m going to grow French Beans because it is the vegetable I eat most of. We get through 3 large packs a week but they have travelled thousands of miles from Kenya and Senegal. Mine will travel 25 metres from garden to kitchen and they taste so much more succulent because of that. Hopefully, by the time they are ready for planting out, the rain will have stopped.

Just 15 years ago this week, we were in the final throes of negotiating our way out of work, pay off our mortgage and preparing to leave for our Greek home. The ferries were booked and the thought of a garden full of olive trees and flowers was so appealing.

Within 4 days it was all over and (in one bound) we were free. I remember the climax and anti-climax of that time. Although we can look back on it with amusement now, it didn’t feel like it at the time. From certainty to uncertainty with one bound. We flew Olympic Airways from Manchester for the last time. Haven’t flown from Manchester since and certainly not Olympic which went out of business not so long afterwards.

Just as work has gone, the airline has gone, The old Athens airport has gone, the houses are gone, that life has gone too. Even the newspapers have largely gone.

One of the first things I did on the Sunday morning in Athens was to walk up to Syndagma (Parliament) Square to buy newspapers – The Observer and the Sunday Times which were flown in from London each day. I am brought up short by that memory. Haven’t bought a physical newspaper for so many years and I’ve got the clean hands to prove it.

Monday, 1st April, 2024

Happy new month to all Readers. April is an optimistic month and the sun outside this morning is wonderful. Warm weather, rain to come; must be growing weather very soon.

Even so, the time continuum is unstoppable so I must wish my friend, Christine, happy birthday. Always nice to know she is older than me and on such an auspicious day as well. She told me this morning that one of her daughters was 40 last week. As some of us know, that’s nothing is it Dear Reader?

It is funny how so many of us remember fondly our College days and much more fondly than our subsequent university experiences. Many have gone on to complete Degrees, Masters and Doctorates but I suppose, the former were a significant part of our formative years and we went on to Universities in a relatively more mature state.

I look at these two old men and still see the boys in them. It is only 55 years ago that we met. Here they are sitting in 22C/70F of sunshine yesterday in Elgin on the northern tip of Scotland enjoying their retirements.

Quite pleased I didn’t rush in to buying compost from my local garden centre. I need quite a lot to refresh the raised beds and refill the pots around the garden. Suddenly saw an advert for Wickes packs of compost that contain trace elements to promote growth and at almost half the garden centre price. I have ordered 1000 ltrs for £100.00 to be delivered for ‘free’ tomorrow rather than have to go out and make a number of trips bringing it home myself.

Unfortunately, we’ve still got quite a bit of rain forecast for the coming week. Ironically, might have to retreat to Wales at this rate. Anyway, we have to believe that things are getting better slowly.

Outside Sainsburys this morning, a young homeless man was sitting with his dog. Pauline bought him some Easter cakes and some treats for the dog. As we paid at the self service till, Sainsburys offered us comprehensive pet insurance.

Tuesday, 2nd April, 2024

Another nice morning. I’m at home today expecting a large delivery of garden supplies. It is a typically self indulgent thing. As I plan my day in my newish 4-bedroom home with a Utility, an Office, a Garden and a Gym, with a newish car parked outside and delightful neighbours surrounding me, I focussed on the latest Tory Government’s obscenity: a Bill to criminalise Homelessness.

A century ago, George Bernard Shaw and G.K. Chesterton considered it a central and a great evil and how we respond to poverty as a measure of the success or failure of our humanity.

During the pandemic, in an attempt to avoid nice people getting infected, there was a concerted, Governmental mission to get the great unwashed off the streets by providing accommodation – something which had long been advocated by the Left. Behold, it worked. End of the pandemic panic, end of the housing support – Homeless back on the streets. Now, instead of helping them (the carrot), they are going to criminalise them (the stick).

The Bill even says that people on the streets can be arrested if they smell. Can you imagine it? Straight out of the Gym, I would be arrested every day. I walk past so many women who stink of cheap perfume so badly that it takes my breathe away. I would definitely have them arrested.

While I’m writing, I am listening to a podcast from the The News Agents entitled: Is the world running out of babies? The world’s population is in steep decline. To just maintain it, every woman should have 2.1 children and that is not an academic observation. Everything that my Generation expects in their old age – pensions, health care, social care, etc. These things are paid for by the taxes of working people just as ours paid for the generation before us. We are living longer and need caring for longer. All of that needs more not less workers paying taxes.

Now, I’ve had experience of a number of barren women and I can’t see people like them being persuaded to change their lifestyles to start having children never mind how the tax system is altered to incentivise them. And the solution to this socio-economic problem will be …. greater immigration. An influx of people from abroad will be required to do the jobs and pay the taxes providing the resources for Government to pay the Pensions, resource the Health and Social Care plus all the other things we expect.

This is the wonderful irony. Exactly what the Tories say they are against is exactly what they need …. and they know it is which is why they say they want to bring immigration down while presiding over record immigration. It is the only thing which keeps us afloat. Of course, quite a few of those immigrants start off sleeping rough and all of them will eventually require houses. Building houses, which the Tories have also failed to do, is a major requirement. The real test of how bad the Tories are is that so many Tory MPs are revolting … literally and literally.

Wednesday, 3rd April, 2024

Well, I’ve woken up in Wales again. It’s raining … again! Pity really because I want to get on with the garden. Everything I needed was delivered yesterday and is piled outside in the rain. Just have to do extra Gym today.

Fifteen years ago today, I retired. I haven’t worked since although, I have been tempted at times. In the past, workers weren’t expected to get more than 5 years out of their retirement and drawing on their State Pension. Retire at 65 and die at 70. (Three score years and ten).

I retired at 58 and have had a decade more than my allocation already. Although, I am incredibly grateful for that, I intend to have many more years to come. Longevity will help me achieve my goals.

When I arrived at my College digs in September 1969, I was told that I would be sharing with two other lads. Nigel was already there but the third, a lad called John hadn’t yet arrived. When he did, we agreed with the family that I would be called John-1 and he would be called John-2 not only because of my natural superiority but because I got there first.

We started on the same day and we retired on the same day. My good friend, John-2 is celebrating 15 years of retirement too. I wish him many more years of happiness. Of course, he’s a lot older than me.

A girl, a relation of Pauline’s, who is just 62 found she had cancer two years ago. She has been undergoing horrendous treatment but without much effect. She was educated at Bluecoat School in Oldham. She hadn’t even retired and has been deprived of the joy of senior relaxation. Now she is bedridden and in her final days. They can’t even find hospice space for her up in Lancashire. I can’t get all that out of my head. It seems so incredibly unfair. What it does teach me is to go for everything I want and not worry about breaking a few eggs. No regrets. We are a long time dead,

Thursday, 4th April, 2024

Typical April day of sun and showers. Went to Sainsburys this morning where we always do self-checkout having used my smartphone to scan in the items. Today, there were quite a few things on half price to Nectar Card holders so we bought multiples of those to take advantage. At checkout, the bill came to £120.00 which even now seems quite high and we do shop multiple times in multiple places each week but the young couple next to us paid a bill of £220.00! Can you imagine the cost of a young family at the moment?

Because of the incredible run of wet weather this winter, almost all my exercise has been done in the Gym. I don’t mind. I’ve rather enjoyed it but it has meant that I’ve watched a lot of drama while I worked out. Usually, I like a fact or historically based drama. For example, I watched Spooks, an MI6 drama based around actual terrorist scenarios I remember through the past 3 decades.

I’ve been watching Strike Back, a similar Special Operations series which deals with Rhodesia/Zimbabwe independence, the freeing of Kenya from its British Colonial Protectorate and Tanzania as it became a Republic. It is a socio-political process I had to study for my Degree. Both of these dramas are rather macho affairs which are not really my style but I like the context in which they’re set.

These sort of things do not appeal to my wife so other genres are required for joint watching in the evenings. Recently, I’ve found a strange but wonderful comedy drama called The Gentlemen on Netflix. I nearly didn’t get past the first episode but stayed with this wacky/sinister drama about drug cultivation in a stately home. It turned out to be really cleverly written and produced and I’m hoping there will be a second series

To really display the full gamut of taste and decency, we are currently watching together a drama about sex in and out of marriage. It centres on a newly widowed older woman played by Emma Thompson who hires a male escort to experience a sexual experience that her recently deceased husband could never provide.

The whole drama – Good Luck to you Leo Grande – centres on this process and is confined to a hotel room. It is a very uncomfortable and rather sad comedy at times but ends as Emma Thompson’s character has her first ever orgasm and, as a result for the first time, actually appreciates her own naked body. Sometimes, it can be a bit too near the bone but that is good for all of us at times, isn’t it Dear Reader?

Now, I’m going in the Gym to get closer to appreciating my naked body although I think it will take longer than a couple of hours over the next few weeks before that happens.

Friday, 5th April, 2024

Guess how the day’s started. Yes, it’s raining. Actually, it won’t be for long and the next few days will be lovely. My friend, Julie, is a cricket fanatic and is celebrating the first day of the new season in her potting shed because she is expecting a wet day. She sent me a picture of her typically scruffy, allotment grower’s shed. It obviously does the job.

I am still shocked at the Man.Utd. result last night. I still need consoling. Might even move my allegiances to Brighton & Hove Albion.

It’s 9.30 am and the sun is out, the clouds have largely dispersed, it’s gorgeously warm in the garden and I am looking forward to a good few days. Before I use the Gym, it has to be cleaned. I’ve actually offered to help my Housekeeper in doing it. So, after that, I’ve got a couple of hours work out there. Over the weekend we can actually get down to some garden work. We virtually never eat potatoes – maybe 3 or 4 times in as many years – but I am going to grow some.

Pauline loves baby new potatoes and I am going to provide her with them this summer. She has sacrificed herself enough for me.

Just been listening to a podcast of Professor Tim Spector talking about his specialist subject: Dieting and Gut Health. He came to prominence during the pandemic because he launched a successful National Data app whereas the Government’s was late and an utter failure. It was used, initially, to track Covid symptoms and infections across the country, to inform users and the National Health Service of the current position. Spector’s app called ZOE which means LIFE in Greek quickly attracted 5 million users and we reported every morning over Breakfast our current state of health.

Professor Spector is an interesting man. Like me, his father died young of a heart attack. Like me, he compensated for loss by eating and drinking the wrong things and put on weight. Like me, he had his own health crisis – in his case a mini-stroke. Like me, he looked to his fitness and diet as a consequence.

Unlike me, he is a Professor and has become nationally significant in his subsequent work which has branched out into attention to gut health. This is a step too far for me. I eat lots of fruit, vegetables and fish but I can’t bring myself to major on fermented foods as he advises. Have you tried sauerkraut? Don’t make me eat fermented cabbage.

My wife is not shaving very well in the mornings so I’m buying her a new mirror for her bathroom. I’m also buying one for mine as well. The secret of a good marriage is definitely separate bathrooms. Woman are so untidy aren’t they?

Saturday, 6th April, 2024

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me …. I am 73 today and I am beginning to feel it. Today, I have been allowed TOAST for breakfast. Can you imagine it? Homemade, wholemeal bread toasted. Felt so sinful … well it would do if I was religious.

Hard to conceive of the fact that I was born 73 years ago this morning. My father never forgave me because I was born on the 1st day of the new tax year which cost him a year’s reclaimable tax for a child. My father would be 110 and my mother 101 this year. It is 52 years since I started teaching and 15 years since I retired. The statistics keep coming towards me. At some stage they will roll right over me but not until I have completed my list ….

Today, I will be having not one but two simple carbohydrates. Toast for Breakfast and my chosen Birthday Supper – Linguine. There is something about pasta and seafood that really appeals to me. So, exercise first to earn the privilege of self-indulgence.

This week a decade ago, we were setting off for our 15th and last trip across Europe to our Greek house. It seems so near and yet so far like so many things. Even though it has freed us to do so many more different and interesting things, I mourn its loss. Our first night was spent at a lovely hotel in Rheims. The Hotel de las Paix was delightful.

Sunday, 24th March, 2024

Gorgeous morning again. Thank goodness for that. We need some good news, don’t we, Dear Reader. The sky is blue and sun is streaming through the patio windows on to the Breakfast table making it, almost, too warm.

For no other reason than it looked beautiful to me, I feature a photo of fruit in sunshine. The ribbed texture in the sunlight looked so appealing. Melon, Mango and Banana are my go-to fruits currently

I must admit, I’d rather be in Greek sun than the light streaming into our kitchen. Above is Aristotelous Square, Thessaloniki taken this morning from the hotel we will be in during June. I snatched the photo from webcam at 9.30 am (UK) / 11.30 am (Gr) where the square is clearly being prepared for yet another cultural event. It’s not Easter because, in Greece this year, Easter is not until May.

How seriously do you take security? You would think that a man who parades the minutiae of his daily life across the internet for all to read would be low on security. Quite the opposite. I take it incredibly seriously and only allow access to the things I choose. I wonder what you do about your data and passwords security.

Years ago, I moved on from just one password to multiples recorded in a file which I had to carry round with me as I travelled to Greece for half the year to using an on-line password manager which stores and automatically retrieves all passwords for me. Great for dementia sufferers. I use Norton 360 which installs on Computers, Laptops, IPads and smartphones to keep data secure and passwords available. It synchronises across all platforms. Then I back everything up in the cloud and double backup on memory sticks. With my Blog, I rent a second site to back the whole thing up ready for publication when I retire – if I retire from Blogging.

Valeting the car in the afternoon sunshine. Carpets vacuumed, seats and upholstery leather treated, Glass cleaned, Fascia freshened up, paintwork shampooed and waxed, wheels treated and tyres faced. Needed some help with all that. Must admit, it did look good afterwards. Neighbours around pay just over £100.00 per car per month in a contract with professional cleaners who come to their homes to do the job. I usually quite enjoy doing it myself but it felt too demanding today.

Monday, 25th March, 2024

The last week of March begins with a blood test. When I was ill in America, hospital tests reported raised enzymes in the liver. Ultimately, Legionnaires Disease was diagnosed but my last blood test at the UK surgery indicated the same thing – raised enzymes in the liver. I have been asked to have another blood test to pinpoint the problem.

After that we walked on the beach path for a few minutes. Lovely and warm and fresh, the tide was coming in and the light was gentle.

I must admit, I couldn’t have told you where my liver was or what it was there for. Now I’ve looked it up, I wish I hadn’t. Bodies are just too scary for delicate people like me.

I will almost certainly be told to stop drinking. I will, of course, do as I’m told. Only got 300 bottles to drink first. There will probably be a hiatus for Easter so I won’t hear the result for a couple of weeks and then an appointment to discuss them. So, about 3 weeks … 100 bottles a week … feels a bit of a stretch.

Watch a sad/romantic serialised film over the past few nights. It had been suggested to us and appeared to be the sort of watch we could share. It was about an unlikely couple who met at university in Edinburgh and became friends against all the odds but then went their separate ways. She went into teaching and he became a television presenter. They meet once a year over a decade and then finally get together and life is going well just as she …

Apparently, the story was originally made into an American film but this UK series made by Netflix was brilliantly cast. It is not my normal sort of viewing but I found it really moving and it played across my mind over night. I am pathetic! But then you knew that, Dear Reader.

Smoked salmon salad for lunch. Haven’t done that for months. It feels like Summer. Been out to buy seeds this morning. Going to sow French Beans, Parsley, Sage, Salad Leaves all for the kitchen and then African Marigolds for the street beds in the lawns.

Tuesday, 26th March, 2024

The morning didn’t start off well. Received a text from the surgery to tell me that, as a result of my blood tests yesterday, they are sending me for an abdominal ultrasound. Just the sort of reassurance one needs at Breakfast. My Housekeeper is out at an early Hairdressers appointment so I am rapidly Googling the results of my blood test and the need for abdominal ultrasound. There don’t appear to be many upsides.

Suddenly began to wonder if it’s worth sowing those seeds I bought yesterday. Isn’t life weird?

We have a friend in Lancashire who retired recently and is now dying of cancer. She has been trying so hard over the past few months to live life as fully as possible but the chemotherapy has finally worn her down, taken all her strength and the cancer has taken her life almost entirely away. She is now bedridden, out of strength, out of fight and preparing for Hospice Care although that seems to be in very short supply up there. Pauline did a Facetime conversation with her this morning. How she did it, I don’t know. It would have been quite beyond me.

Wednesday, 27th March, 2024

Another nice, warm day although not full of sunshine. I’ve been busy in the Office all morning. Anyone who is married or living in a long term relationship will understand the dilemma I’ve been confronting this morning. Household tasks are largely assigned according to gender mainly because our ages. Younger households may well see it differently.

Washing machines are a mystery to me. Not that I am proud of the fact but it is so. For a short period, I lived on my own and took everything to a Laundrette where the lady who owned it took pity on me and washed everything for me after the occasion when I threw everything in together and ended with a batch of pink shirts. Then, I got married and my Housekeeper took over. Similarly with the Dryer and the Ironing. I know I should have tried but persuade myself that it is beyond me.

That is not to say that I don’t contribute in my own way. I do the heavy lifting, open jars, move loads, carry things. I write most letters, documents where it is important to win an argument, have influence, make a strong case. I am responsible for organising Savings and Investments – as opposed to day to day spending. S&A is so much more enjoyable at the moment with interest rates offering real returns against inflation. Even in our 70s, we have been able to move from pure savings into a mix of investments to really make a substantial contribution to our income. There is no question: Money makes Money.

One of the nice things is not having to worry about pensions. Younger ones have had to keep an eye on the performance of invested pension funds to decide when to retire. Ours may not be generous but they are guaranteed and index-linked. Anything else we make is a bonus for luxuries and future solutions. As long as I can shelter them from tax, they are doing well. But what would happen if I died? Would my wife know how to access everything? Liquidate things? Move things around? What about Probate? Can I organise things so that she doesn’t have to pay out extra fees to get at things. This is what I’ve been working on today. If I should die, think only this of me ….

Thursday, 28th March, 2024

Little Jane is 70 years old today. It is a special landmark and we wish her a very happy day.

The rain just keeps coming in squalls of warm but blustery water. In fact, it was so wet this morning, we decided not to shop at Waitrose but go the Sainsburys underground (dry) carpark.

It does make life a lot easier. Went on to the beach where strong winds and a rising tide had brought out the intrepid windsurfers. Even so, I couldn’t see myself doing this at any stage of my life.

Had a nice chat with Kevin who has sun and is going out on a 20 mile bike ride, with Julie who has sun and is setting off with pieces of her art work to sell in a local gallery and with JohnR who is preparing his talk on Life in a Cistercian Community which he will deliver in Richmond, North Yorkshire. And I’m setting off to Lidl to buy gardening products which are so much cheaper there. What am I doing?? I’m going in the Gym where the rain can only be heard on the roof and the TV needs to be turned up a notch.

Friday, 29th March, 2024

They say it’s Good Friday. I’ll be the judge of that! There are definitely some things missing which I have to seek out and I will. Actually, down at the beach it is a very good Friday for sun worshippers.

Real contrast with yesterday. Warm, relatively calm for a turning tide, quiet even on a holiday and with strong colours.

The rhythms of the year are defined by the seasons as dormant Winter gives rise to Spring, blossoms into Summer and fruits in Autumn before the cycle is repeated. Similarly, the calendar is graduated by anachronistic religious festivals – Lent, Easter, Whitsun, Harvest Festival and Christmas.

They all emphasise the continuity of life. For children, these sections seem endless but the older one gets the quicker the transitions seem to arrive. I’ve no idea why but, despite not believing in any religion, we still make Christmas cakes, eat turkey; we still roast a leg of lamb at Easter and make Greek filo lamb parcels with the left overs. Living in Greece, it seemed rude not to.

Sometimes it’s hard to break out of the patterns. Even so, after a difficult year, we have to make this one a whole lot better. I am determined not to be put off. Got to visit, travel meet – all the things I couldn’t do last year. We are feeling a bit hemmed in at the moment. Still one or two medical issues to sort out but it won’t be long, hopefully.

Saturday, 30th March, 2024

Easter Weekend. A lovely, warm morning. You’ll be pleased to know, Dear Reader, that I am celebrating by having my haircut by my Housekeeper. Well, got to keep costs down. Every morning, she also creams my feet. Can you imagine the chiropody bill for that? All the walking I do can lead to problems – dryness and cracking – so I need to be maintained regularly. I understand, you didn’t really need to know that. Well, Easter is a time for honesty. How many self-professed Christians do you know who are really profoundly un-Christian?

Just thought the Philosophy students among you might like this cartoon based on the theory of Schrodinger’s Cat. We atheists have to fight back in a period when Christianity has its little moment.

Just heard from Jane who has spent the week celebrating her 70th birthday in Oporto. It looks nice although I know absolutely nothing about it. In fact, I’ve never been to Portugal at all. Pleased she’s enjoyed her week.

To cap the week, received in the post this morning an appointment to attend Southlands Hospital at Shoreham by Sea for an Abdomen Ultrasound Scan at the end of April. Wonder what that will throw up. Oh, Christians, pray for me – even those pretending to be Christian. It can’t do any harm at least.

Still maintaining hope until the guillotine falls. Incredibly warm, Spring weather this weekend. At mid day, we are reading 16C/61F in brilliant sunshine from clear blue skies. A quick trip to the garden centre was a mistake. All the world was there. Time to sow seeds. Collect all the materials together – seeds, seed compost, propagators and vermiculite to top them off. This is a wonder mineral largely mined in South Africa. It mixes with the soil to absorb and retain moisture but is also used as a cover for seeds to stop them rotting off.

Sunday, 17th March, 2024

Another grey, wet day began as one of mourning. Death of an old and long-loved friend was announced at 5.45 am.

I bought my bedside clock-radio-alarm almost 25 years ago in Huddersfield. It has been with me through good and bad times, through happiness and sadness and looked after me throughout. The news addict that I am, I value this service more than anything else. On automatically at 5.45 am (Why waste the day?) and off at 7.00 am when I get up.

It introduces me to, prepares me for and gets up ready for the coming day. It got me up for work in the early days and kept me up to date with Farming Today (You’d be surprised how interesting that is. Margaret Thatcher was a fan.). I am an expert on Badger Culling, Slurry Spreading, Crop Rotation and Tractor Maintenance.

Just before the Today Programme starts, there is always Tweet of the Day in which someone features the song of a different bird each morning. The Today programme has been with me since the 1960s, since the late, great Jack de Manio and Brian Redhead.

Today, of course, is St Patrick’s Day. It doesn’t mean anything to me other than it reminds me of two years ago today when we were in Midtown Manhattan, New York City just as the parade began to start its route through the city. It was an interesting week.

My clock radio has died before and this time I really though it was terminal. I’m pleased and very relieved to announce that I have managed to resurrect it once again. The news is less good of a young man from our past. It had been announced this morning that Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel has died of cancer at the age of …. 73. The silent drip, drip, drip of our time continues continuously …..

Monday, 18th March, 2024

Well into the second half of March and at least the day is warm and dry with patchy sunshine. The clocks go forward in two weeks and the world will be hurtling towards Summer. Our ‘village’ is decidedly Spring-like with flowers and blossom all around. It’s also rampant with new house developments that have enraged the longer standing village residents.

March is traditionally time for a revival of the housing market. We didn’t really see much down time. We are not NIMBYs. We are comers-in ourselves and didn’t buy for the qualities of a quaint, old village setting.

Over 2000 new homes have been built or started in the 7 years since we arrived. Above is just one, David Wilson development which is in process at the moment. When we moved here, every inch of the area in the above photo was green fields with trees and hedgerows, soon it will be completely covered in residences.

The demand for these homes is fuelled by commutability to London via the rail network and the motorways system, but is also marketed through its proximity to the coast and the Sussex Downs for walking. Sometimes it is hard to imagine that there are enough people to buy these homes within travelling distance to their work from here. If you work on an average of 3 people per household, about 6000 new people have arrived here over 7 years with at least 2000 extra cars.

The demand for new houses has driven up the prices considerably. Starting prices for ‘quality’, 2 bed first homes opens at around £360,000 and a 4 bed home will begin at £700,000. It always makes me laugh when we broke the bank 40 years ago in 1984 to buy a 4 bedroom stone built house in an acre of land in Helme for £74,000. We really thought we had arrived. Now, most people who are buying a similar house without land are paying 10 x that price before kitting it out.

Tuesday, 19th March, 2024

I’m told it’s Tuesday. It could be any day at the moment. They are all blending into each other quite monotonously. Got to do something to mix things up very soon. Go somewhere. See things. Meet people. It’s been coming for some time.

This time two years ago, I was staying in a Sporting Academy complex in Florida – using their Gym and pool, walking in the sunshine and enjoying lovely company. The IMG campus was huge.

At the weekend, while watching the build up to the 6 Nations match, a report on a member of the Welsh team moving to American sport was featured from the same IMG Academy complex in Bradenton, Florida and warm memories flooded back.

We may not go back to Florida until next year but intend to make a number of shorter trips in the next few months. Must go to France a few times soon, to the North soon and then fly to Thessaloniki in June and Athens in August. Got to start moving!

Pauline has always kept mementoes as she has moved through the timeline of her life. Things that are time or person specific, things of her Mum & Dad, of our married life and of our travels. Generally, they are not moribund items stuffed away in a box but she tries to incorporate them into her current life. When she was 21, she had a little party with her College friends in Tottenham. They were Food Science students and bought her a large, glass mixing bowl 51 years ago. She uses it almost every day even now.

In the mid 1970s, a blocked drain outside our first house in Meltham, Huddersfield was excavated. This blue jewel of of fluorite emerged from the mud. Who knows how it got there. Our house was the original, 19th century Coaching House in the grounds of the Mansion house. It certainly had centuries of history to reclaim. It reclaimed some of my memories this morning when I came upon it although I tend to collect people not things.

Wednesday, 20th March, 2024

The Spring Equinox, Dear Reader. Yet another one! The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning equal and night.

From here, the days increasingly get longer than the nights which is why clocks go forward in 10 days to make use of all that daylight. I would prefer them staying that way. Bugger Scotland. They can have their own time zone if they like.

While daylight/sunlight gets longer, inflation is coming down. Today it was announced at 3.4%. After years of making next to no income from cash savings, I am feeling so much better. Having tied money up at a loss for many years, I bought 3 year fixed-rate bonds at 6.1% last year when inflation was 9.4%, now I have more than 18 months left while lower inflation means I am making positive earnings and it is predicted to be down to 2% by winter. Because of that, I am continuing the process of investing it in ISAs to shelter it from tax. We can only make £2000 a year tax free unless it is in an ISA wrapper so I will be buying another £40,000 next month when the new tax year allows it.

Of course, prices aren’t coming down. They are just going up a little more slowly. Today, we bought the last of Sainsburys cans of Virgin Olive Oil. Only 2 years ago, we were buying this 3L can for £7.35. Today, each can was £16.10. Fortunately, we can afford to pay it but many can’t. The Spanish themselves are largely turning away from their own olive oils in favour of cheaper seed/nut oils.

Exactly 52 years ago this morning, I was regretting everything. I had sprinted across the College lawns from the Cottages to reach the student bar, affectionately know as the Wilkie, with just 30 mins to closing time at 11.00 pm. I was meeting my friend, Kevin, who had a pint of John Smith’s Bitter waiting for me. Three pints later (well we had 30 minutes), we saw something going on down in the carpark. A coach had arrived. Students were getting on it in the darkness. We learnt that they were going to do the Lyke Wake Walk. For me, after 3 pints in 30 minutes, they could have been doing naked sunbathing at midnight so when Kevin said, Come on. Let’s do it., I stupidly agreed.

Almost 12 hours later and after 40 miles of walking under the moonlight – the Lyke Wake Walk is a complete crossing of the North Yorkshire Moors – I had feet covered in blisters and very aching legs. Actually, Kevin had heard that the Marines had run the entire route and thought we should emulate them. We tried but just couldn’t sustain it. I don’t think I could walk 40 miles now.

Thursday, 21st March, 2024

Yesterday launched Summer at the start of Spring. We were warm – 18C/65F – and gorgeously sunny. The lawns were mowed. Minds turned to gardening. Well, I turned my gardener’s mind to clearing the pots and weeding the raised beds. I think she enjoyed it. My job today is forking over, aerating the soil and topping it up with fresh. Next I can book a company to come and professionally clean the surrounding patio, drive and front path so we will be ready for the season.

As a reward for her work yesterday, the gardener has ordered 5 new swimming costumes in readiness for European travel. She tells me her bikini days are over. I suspect she won’t need them in Oldham but you never know.

My friend, Kevin, is in mourning because his favourite pub is being converted into apartments. They could convert all pubs to apartments for me. I’ve offered him my choice as an alternative.

We have a plumber here this morning fitting a new shower in one of the bathrooms. We think this shower has started to lose its power because it is rarely used. Since living in Greece, we both prefer showers to baths and should rotate through the bathrooms but generally use the same one each time because it’s a bigger, walk-in one.

As the general Election looms, we are still only hearing from one, political party in our new constituency. Labour are becoming increasingly confident of winning down here for the first time in over 50 years. The sitting Conservative MP is so old he is the Father of the House of Commons. Sir Peter Bottomley is 80 this year. Time to retire! Time for a Change!

Our Labour candidate is a lively, young-ish, local doctor. Exactly the sort of character to represent a thrusting area such as this. If she can win here against the weight of history then Labour can sweep the board across the country. The Tories are jumping ship in so many places. Noticed that the candidate for Manchester Mayor has defected to the Reform Party this morning. He wouldn’t have stood a chance anyway.

Friday, 22nd March, 2024

Strange dream last night. I was 90 years old – only 17 years away. Still reasonably fit but I seemed to be talking in the wind, having a one way conversation that had lasted for years. There was nothing coming back. Wondered if it was my Blog. It was very uncomfortable.

Very warm but overcast day. At least it’s still dry. Every morning over Breakfast I am sent a news briefing from various parts of the country and parts of the world that are/have been significant to me over time. This morning there was a story about a woman being knocked down on Falinge Road in Rochdale. It wasn’t the dark, damp, chilly night that struck me. It wasn’t the 42 year old drug-driver who struck the elderly woman. What hit me hardest was that we were told the woman was 72! Elderly woman aged 72!!! What is happening?? We’ll all be living on canal boats at this rate. At least we won’t get run down.

These things are beginning to get to me more and more. This week, I decided I could be a WASPI woman. Think of all the compensation. My Housekeeper missed out on 15 months state pension because of the unannounced change. That could amount to more that 20p in compensation. Actually, the Right Wing Press is arguing that Wealthy ‘WASPIs should be barred from compensation. Just think, elderly woman died without compensation. I don’t know which is worse.

Saturday, 23rd March, 2024

After a clear night and the garden illuminated by a nearly full moon, the day has opened to a glorious morning. Blue sky, strong sunshine, feeling of vibrant life and possibilities. I’m going out to buy …. a new garden brush! Woohoo!!

I have to wish P&C a happy anniversary. It is 67 years ago today that Pauline’s sister got married. Pauline, the mistake, was just 5 years old. This is the happy couple on Oldham Wakes holiday in Blackpool three months after their wedding in 1957.

I bought a new garden brush to sweep away the winter detritus from the garden and then walked across the beach as the sea was rushing in to clean the pebbles once again.

Pauline had ordered 5 swim suits and a couple of dresses for the holidays in the sun. Today, we returned 3 of the swim suits and one of the dresses and the company took them back at their expense although I suppose it was factored into the price. I was quite surprised that she went for an ethnic, ‘Aztec’ design which you might expect Pocahontas to wear but she looks nice in it and it is so cheap it won’t matter if sun cream stains it.

We’ve got almost 12 weeks until we do a hot sun trip so I suspect there will be plenty more where that came from. It won’t be quite the same in France where anything goes. I am currently looking at just getting in the car and driving – perhaps booking ahead by one night at a time. Route: Coquelles, Wimereux, Boulogne, Le Touquet, Saint Valery, Dieppe, Le Havre, Saint Malo, Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux … and relax. I definitely need to move and explore, to find new places and people, to revisit and rejoin places and people from the past. I intend to do all 0f those things this year.

For me the changing seasons mean travelling and gardening. For my Housekeeper. they mean ingredients and menus. As in Greece so it is in UK. Easter means Roast Lamb. We virtually never eat lamb throughout the year but at Easter it is obligatory. Of course, we recognise that it is a religious thing – The Lamb of God – in which we are not invested. However, the tradition is fun to observe. In Greece, it would be a whole lamb spit roast outside in the sunshine. Here, it is a leg of lamb from Waitrose roasted with home grown rosemary and mint.

Sunday, 10th March, 2024

Pleasant, soft day of calm. You could almost think it was a Sunday. Things are so far gone that we have both forgotten Mothers’ Day. I struggle to remember, feel sentimental about the loss nowadays. I know, it says more about me but just being honest.

I have one job and one job only. I have to copy our old phones to our new phones and then the trouble starts. If you have never had to do this, you won’t understand but it is a nightmare!

When I swap Apple iPads, the copy across is easy and straightforward but I’ve been invested in Android phones for twenty years and I enjoy my Samsung phones, watches, etc so I am persevering. Today, with two, new phones, I am copying apps and data so that our lives continue seamlessly. Or not.

I keep all my texts back over the past 5 years, my social media connections and they are important to me. They copied across perfectly. Whatsapp messages copied across. Eventually, it all came down to Pauline’s smartwatch which gave me trouble. It took two hours before her data flooded into the phone and all was well. I don’t know why I put myself through it. I sent out Whatsapps and got successful replies. I sent out texts and got some successful replies. Emails are working.

It has been such a stressful morning, it will be good to get in the Gym and work off the aches of the day. Raining in the North this morning. It must affect their texts. Watched a few minutes of Huddersfield Town at home in strong rain. Not a pretty sight. They were winning for … 10 minutes but lost 1-4 to Kevin’s chagrin.

Monday, 11th March, 2024

Warm, grey and overcast. Oh, I know the feeling. Well, quite a few jobs to get through plus a couple of hours in the Gym. One of the bathroom sinks has developed a slow leak. Got to get the plumber. While he’s here, he can fix the flow of one of the bathrooms’ showers. This afternoon, the House Security System is doing the annual service so we have to be here. Don’t want him breaking in!

Finally agreed to sell our two, old (nearly new) phones for £642.00 to a resale company called Meelie Mobile in Newcastle-under-Lyme. According to their website, they will sell them on for about £1000.00. They are in perfect condition after two years of use having been protected by back cases and front screen covers. Good luck to them. I’m quite happy. I ordered all the extras – covers, screen protectors, etc, from Amazon Prime. I love it. Next day delivery ‘free’ and free and easy returns if you don’t like them … which I don’t. New ones ordered to be delivered tomorrow. Rejects going back tomorrow.

We’ve decided that our plumber isn’t as good as we first thought and I have to look for another. Our local Checkatrade has quite a few but how do I decide? I just pick one and call. If they’re rubbish, I won’t use them again. We’ve phoned Plumber on Tap because I like the name. He will be with us tomorrow.

Talked to Julie this morning. Kevin’s wife, Chris, is going up to see her this week which is both ironic and magnanimous. Both are in a flurry to get things at their best. Kevin won’t be there. I wonder why.

Anyway, I’m going in the Gym to hide away from the world. Until I go on a Kings’ drive to discover what lies beyond. Can you believe the Royal Family deliberately deceiving their slavering public by altering photographs. Is there anyone who actually cares? I certainly don’t. They are irrelevant to modern Britain.

Tuesday, 12th March, 2024

A truly horrible day of heavy rain. Warm but terribly wet. There is so much to do but the climate is revolting. Early this morning we had to go out for some purchases.

No wonder I use Amazon Prime who deliver ‘free of charge’ next day to my door. By the end of this week I will have received deliveries from them on 5 consecutive days. I know it sounds mad but phone covers and screen protectors. Some rejected and returned with new ones ordered. Computer/iPad Screen cleaner, specialist lighting tubes used in the bathrooms but which I can’t be bothered hunting for in the real world, Sellotape pack, mobile trickle charger for the side of my bed. It’s the delivery people I feel sorry for. They constantly looked shattered and stressed. Come to think of it, I remember that feeling …

The Home Security service man arrived yesterday afternoon. It took him precisely 15 minutes to check the system, PIRs, Alarm battery, sound box, etc. That costs £110.00 per year. Actually, it is more of an insurance policy because they come out immediately in crisis times when the alarm goes off. It would be incredibly stressful for the neighbourhood particularly if we were away.

Think I’m giving up the will to live. We have a dear friend who is struggling with terminal cancer. It is almost unimaginable. Sometimes death seems to follow us round. I was reading an article written by a Hospice nurse about the most common things people in their final days regret:

• ‘ I wish I hadn’t dedicated so much of my life to working so hard.’ …
• ‘ I wish I’d lived my life the way I wanted, not how others expected me to behave.’ …
• ‘ I regret losing touch with so many of my friends’. …
• ‘ I wish I’d been brave enough to express my feelings more’. ‘ …
• ‘ I wish I’d let myself be happier’.

So many of these things could apply to me. They are a wake up call for the now, for the alive. Learn from other’s mistakes. They Stay With Me.

I have a problem with sex. I am strictly heterosexual and I just can’t watch a homosexual kiss on screen or anywhere else. It is clearly becoming more acceptable in the media but I just cannot watch it. I have literally to avert my eyes. I have tried to examine my response but I really don’t know if it is cultural or physical or a blend of the two. Maybe, I am a product of my time when overt homosexuality was a crime and the generations coming after me will be much more liberal and accepting.

I am in my 70s and like to think I’m fairly open minded. I have no objection to same-sex couples even though I find it impossible to face it myself. I have much more discomfort with Gender Dysphoria which is the subject of action today as the NHS withdraws from the gender-altering process of so-called Trans Children.

Wednesday, 13th March, 2024

Pleasant, dry and fairly bright day. Really warm. Not feeling at my best today – old, fat, tired. Got to get going. Got some photo editing to do today. Making a card for a friend wearing bikini and wellies (her not me) in this weather.

I enjoy photo editing so the recent Royal debacle has rather amused me. Anything which undermines the Monarchy cheers me up and putting out a publicly sanctioned photo is a bit different to the personal things I do but anybody who uses social media trespasses into this sphere regularly.

Above, two separate photos of Littlehampton beach where the River Arun flows into the sea are then knitted together to create a more panoramic but untruthful shot.

Looks a bit cold and grey so I’ve warmed it up a little by adjusting the colour saturation and hue using a Photoshop precursor I’ve been using for years – Macromedia Fireworks.

There is plenty of speculation that Kate has been editing out the difficult parts of her life and not just the sleeve in a photo. It is possible that she wasn’t even there for the ‘officially published photo but superimposed he face in between kids on a computer. It isn’t difficult and it hasn’t taken the cartoonists long to see the funny side. If only Sunak could Photoshop his difficulties away.

Thursday, 14th March, 2024

Lovely warm and sunny morning. After the warmest Winter we have ever known and in which we have almost forgotten how to use the central heating, this morning we are …. having the central heating serviced. My secretary is nothing if not assiduous about such things.

A couple of days ago, we had the Security System serviced at an annual cost of £110.00 and the Central Heating service today is undertaken by British Gas at an annual cost of £310.00. Although we have been her for 7 years now from ‘new’, very little is showing signs of wear and tear. The central heating and security systems are working as good as new. The boiler is fairly small and hidden in a cupboard in the Utility Room. It’s a cupboard we never open. It’s unnecessary.

Everything is done remotely from phones, iPads and computers. It is so much more convenient. It is also so much more economical. You want the towel rails heating for warm towels after a shower. Turn them on just Upstairs while working in the Office downstairs. You want to cool the Gym, turn the fan on before you get there. This is how life should be organised. I bet you can’t do this on a canal boat!

My friend, Kevin, and I have exchanged memories. He’s done a 12 mile bike ride today for fitness. I reminded him that I did one in July 1972 to attend my sister’s wedding. There were no early morning buses to the station in Harrogate. I had to borrow my flatmate, Nigel’s bike. I had bought a new, black, 3-piece suit from Burton’s in Ripon – £99.00.

Dressed in my suit, I biked from Ripon to Harrogate at 5.00 am. The crows on the road were massive and very intimidating. After 12 miles, I got there in time because I was very fit then. I was at the wedding but that was the last time I ever rode bike.

Kevin did his afternoon ride this afternoon. It was just 12 miles but not in a Burton’s suit.

Friday, 15th March, 2024

Up very early to get through our own jobs before we set out to help others. Off to Sainsburys to shop for ourselves and then home to prepare for a drive to Surrey.

We were on a mercy mission this morning as we left early to drive up to Surrey. P&C had got into a muddle with the new television we had installed for them. They were only able to watch CNN …. a fate worse than death. Anyone who has been stuck in a foreign hotel room with the only English channel as CNN will know how hard it can be. I knew that the problem was that they had altered the source from the Freeview box. It took minutes to rectify even though the process wasn’t easy to explain over the phone.

The drive was typically Spring moving through warm sunshine and sharp rain storms and back again. We knew that the M25 around there would be closed at the weekend and it was absolutely packed this morning so we went through Cobham instead. It was a good decision.

The TV took minutes to restore and to rehearse with P&C so they could restore it themselves if anything went wrong again.

Pauline noticed their fridge was empty so we shot off to Tesco by the old, Brooklands car race track. We got a reasonable trolley of fruit and vegetables, meat and cheese, wine and chocolate and delivered it back to P&C before setting off on the 90 mins drive home. The drive was typically Spring weather moving through warm sunshine and sharp rain storms and back again. Beautiful blossom everywhere – May Blossom on the roadsides, Magnolia trees in gardens, Cherry blossom in public spaces.

Saturday, 16th March, 2024

Unfortunately P&C are finding life increasingly demanding to deal with. A BT engineer arrived while we were there yesterday. Nobody, including the engineer seemed to know why he had arrived. He left but, by the time we had driven home, their phone line had stopped working. Something had happened which we will have to spend this morning sorting out.

Everything is difficult because of Privacy and Public Liability laws. Even though Pauline shares Power of Attorney, BT will not discuss anything with her about someone else without specific information she just doesn’t have. Perhaps she could phone P&C … if their line hadn’t been cut. We could have driven up there again but the M25 is closed all weekend. Anyway, it turns out that P&C are now having their copper wired land line removed and switched over to a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) one. BT is pushing everyone in that direction. The only thing is that they are charging people £40.00 to fit a new broadband hub. If I’d known yesterday, I could have done it for them for free.

Kevin told me this morning that Julia – my goddaughter – had just completed a very successful Ofsted as SENCO of her school in York. I’ve had a nice chat with her this morning. She is a lovely girl and Kevin is justifiably very proud of her.

In the 6 Nations rugby this afternoon, I want all the away teams to win. The hardest one will be England in Paris but I would particularly like Italy to stuff the Welsh. They deserve it. I’ll be watching from the treadmill and pretending that I’m still playing. It’s quite difficult nowadays to face up to the fact that I will never play again. In fact, never work again. Still, we can all dream and there are still plenty of things that I can and will do again, Dear Reader.

My little sister, Cathy, was in London the other day. I asked her if she was visiting one of my many other sisters, Liz, on her house boat. No fear, she said, I can’t stand boats. All these years and I’d never know that …. a real testament to my sensitivity.

Sunday, 3rd March, 2024

Gorgeous morning although it was quite a cold night. The sun is up and the world is rapidly warming. I’ve been listening to the Chancellor saying absolutely nothing as usual ahead of the budget. I had hoped to hear about his intentions to reform ISAs because that would affect me. I would like to hear him say that he would uprate tax bands because that would have affected me and I would have liked to have heard him confirm the retention of the Triple Lock on State Pensions because that would affect me. I heard none of these things and will now have to wait until the Budget Speech on Wednesday.

We were higher rate tax payers across a large chunk of our working lives but really didn’t expect to be so in retirement. In fact, as we negotiated severance packages on leaving work, that was the first time we really focussed hard on what was to come. In reality, things turned out a lot better than we had anticipated. Teachers’ Pensions is a Defined Benefit Scheme based, in our cases, on our salary and service (Final Salary Arrangement) but for future generations on annual pensionable earnings, revalued each year (Career Average Arrangement). Rather than investments, which many private sector employees now rely on, there were no surprises when we came to claim. Not only that but Teachers Pensions are uprated by RPI inflation rate each new tax year.

It’s what others gaze longingly at nowadays and describe as Gold Plated Pensions. It was one of the few perks of being a teacher, along with the holidays, in a relatively poorly paid profession. It has meant that we feel better off in retirement with no mortgage, no National Insurance payments and no big commuting costs, than we actually did in work. We were always saving and investing while at work and we have continued to do so in retirement. We retired in 2009 and wages and living standards, nationally have hardly risen in that time. It has been the most protracted period of stagnant growth in the post war period and has left us feeling relatively more prosperous than we ever were in work.

One thing we didn’t expect was to be drawn into paying much tax. You may be aware, Dear Reader, of the term: Fiscal Drag. If not, it is taxation by stealth. While Tory Chancellors have talked about wanting to cut taxes on ‘hard working people’ and they have done a bit at the margins, actually, they have increased taxation by much more by holding tax bands firm and not uprating them with inflation. What that means is, if you have a bit of a pay increase, it can be completely wiped out by being dragged into a Higher Tax bracket.

Because of this, we try to shelter as much of our income as possible in Tax-Free savings. In the past, we have invested in shares and bonds. We have gone for managed and tracker funds. We have made money and paid tax on it because the capital gain outweighed the tax. For that reason we largely shunned ISAs. Now, however, the Individual Savings Account is coming back into fashion. All ISA earnings are completely tax free. We can shelter £20,000 per year per person at increasingly competitive rates. Just under a year ago, I managed to put our full, allocation for each of us away at 6.2% and it is fixed for 3 years which allows me to do the same this April and so on. Gradually, over the next few years, we would hope to shelter all our unearned income under a tax-free umbrella

Monday, 4th March, 2024

Oh what a gorgeous day! I’d like to share it with you, Dear Reader. Warm, sunny, bright and blue – just makes one want to be outside. And I’m following that urge by …. driving to the local tip to get rid of the huge amount of packaging we have accumulated recently from purchases. It is bins day today but we’ve got more than we can expect to be taken normally and the tip is quick and easy and only about 4 miles away. Do you want to come too? You know you do. Always good to have a trip out.

Most trips out of here go past the seaside so it is tempting to just stop off for a walk. Today, was warm and windless, soft and sunny and lovely to enjoy. Told you you should have come. The local refuse tip was quiet and the house is now feeling lighter and cleansed of rubbish.

I am a Historian and love I data so it is no surprise that I have kept records across my life. I have box files full of financial records – every payslip going back to September 1972. I was looking at my first couple of years of teaching this morning. My annual salary when I started teaching in September 1972 was £1179.00. That’s not per month but per year and before deductions of income tax, National Insurance, and pension contributions of 7.4%. To put that into perspective, my first monthly pay check was just £62.00 and I had to work for my first month with nothing before I was paid that princely sum.

When I started teaching, there was a shortage of people going into the profession because of the depressed salaries. I was paid extra because English & Science were shortage subjects. I was also paid £365.00 per year extra for teaching in Oldham – an SPS or social priority school. Within the first decade, we received two, relatively large pay rises. In 1975, the Houghton Pay Review awarded us a 27% pay rise. It felt good. Just 5 years later, the Clegg Review awarded us a 25% pay increase which Thatcher had previously foolishly agreed to honour. We went on holiday to celebrate.

Within two years I had received two, large pay rises, additional, special retention payments, two annual salary increments and a promotion. It meant that my annual salary had almost doubled. From almost nothing to double almost nothing. In the subsequent decade, my salary had more than doubled again.

Tuesday, 5th March, 2024

Woke up from a wonderful dream this morning. Bathed in warmth, I didn’t get up until after 7.00 am!!! I felt rather ashamed and self indulgent.

I received an email from BT who supply me with Full Fibre Broadband, ‘Free’ Phone Calls plus BT (TNT) Sport for the princely sum of £125.00 per month. It will soon cost me £135.00 per month. EE, which is also owned by BT is raising my mobile phone charge from £160.00 per month top £172.00 per month for two mobiles so it was really good to hear that we had won the National Lottery over the weekend. That extra £30.00 will really help.

Now Springtime is here, I am thinking about the garden. The soil in the raised beds has compacted and sunk over winter. It needs refreshing and topping up. I’m looking for someone to deliver a large bag of quality topsoil. This is the sort of price I am going to have to pay. When I’ve done that, I’m going to hire a specialist firm to come and clean the patio and drive. I do it myself each Spring but, after 7 years, I want a more professional job. I can’t do that until I’ve finished all the messy jobs like topping up the beds with soil.

I have a new role model to emulate. She was featured in the press yesterday when she turned 117. Can you imagine it? Come on, Dear Reader. Until now, we’ve been setting our sights too low. The new bar is set at 118. For me that will be 2069 some 45 years away. So much time for new life and enjoyment. Come on!!!

Kevin and I have agreed to order a Methuselah bottle of Champagne to celebrate our 118th birthday together. It’s only 6 litres after all. I’ve found one which will do nicely. Even non-drinkers are allowed to break the habits of a lifetime in 2069.

Wednesday, 6th March, 2024

Almost done the first week of March already. Time moves on lost in the tedium of routine. I did my jobs this morning as I do every Wednesday – stripped the bed. I’m not trusted to remake it. Emptied the dishwasher – I’m not trusted to stack it. There has to be more to life than this. Just ask Liz!

Feeling old this morning …. almost 118. Kevin says he wants crisps not nuts with his champagne so the question is whether to buy them now or risk leaving it until 2069. Until then, it is fresh produce for me. Fresh vegetables = Longer Life? Well, maybe.

I smiled this morning when we went out to buy a cooler duvet – 1 Tog – which is what you need when you’re so hot in bed but I came back with these, gorgeous vegetables. Not one item was grown in UK. Oranges from Valencia, Bananas from Columbia, Mango from Costa Rica, Asparagus from Mexico and Green Beans from Senegal. I observe that as a Tory MP stands up and says we should growing all our own produce.

Older age has definitely seen me move increasingly towards eating more vegetables – something I resisted as a young man. I’ve been amazed how much I’ve enjoyed them although I could never be a vegetarian. I do have a little sister who is a Vegan – but you always get one! I suppose, it is easier to indulge oneself in retirement whereas the stress of teaching pushed me more towards self-indulgence, unhealthy, comfort food and lack of exercise.

This pair of old men, good friends of mine although both a couple of years older, are still looking fit and healthy this week even though they live in the North. I think Chris, seen on the right in 1971, has got a job as a postman in his old age.

This morning, however, I had terrible news of another friend who was only 72 and died of cancer last night. He had been clear of cancer for a few years but it returned as it is inclined to do, and he finally succumbed. The cruel twist of fate is dreadful to acknowledge. All we can do is work to mitigate it through a happy, healthy lifestyle.

On this day in 2009, I was writing:

Things are moving fast at the moment. The amalgamation of our school with another and its re-emergence as an Academy has led to enormous redundancy packages being offered. Pauline & I are currently thinking of bringing our retirement forward to this summer.

As it turned out, things were moving very fast and, a month later, we were retired, our mortgage was paid off, we had set up long term investments and were looking forward to a life of leisure.

Thursday, 7th March, 2024

Lovely warm and bright, Spring morning. Almost time to start cutting the lawns. The beds are full of daffodils in full flower and some even starting to go over. We went down to one of the Garden Centres for a quick look.

It is still three weeks until Easter – the traditional start to the Gardening Calendar – but things are well under way. Huge areas of starter plantlets for growing on at home to save the gardener weeks of effort in growing from seed. I will combine both this year … but not quite yet.

Spring is a time for optimism and for hope. All gardeners work on that basis. In spite of the warm but wet Winter weather, better days are ahead. People sow seeds in expectation that they will germinate and plant out in the expectation that they will flower. It is the only way that humans can approach life. I’m trying to do just that but there is something constantly nagging in the back of my mind. You’ve heard of fate, haven’t you Dear Reader?

Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.

Next, Please (1955) – Philip Larkin

Never let over-optimism cloud your judgement. That black-sailed ship is still coming. It’s all just a matter of WHEN.

My friend, Kevin whose older than me, has fallen off his bike. The bike’s alright but Kevin is quite badly damaged. Because I am very sympathetic, I’ve suggested a re-spray.

Just had my Annual Medical Review and they said I was a walking miracle: good blood pressure/heart rate, good cholesterol, no sign of diabetes. In an idle moment while waiting in the Surgery, I was reading my Twitter Feed and answered a question: If you could be the author of any book in the world, which book would it be? I said The Karma Sutra and it went viral.

Friday, 8th March, 2024

Yesterday reached 17C/63F. It has been followed by a gorgeous morning today. Out in the sunshine down to the beach and a walk back along the Marina Promenade.

It is a sleepily working port with fishing and leisure craft pottering around but, back-lit with the bright, Mediterranean colours, it makes one feel like on permanent holiday.

I know virtually nothing about ‘Pop Music’ at least since 1972. It really hasn’t interested me. Even as a teacher, I didn’t engage with it. This was amusingly illustrated over the past few days when I was asked about a character who I now know is Liam Gallagher and is/was in a group called Oasis. Now, I admit, I hed heard of Oasis because they came from Manchester but I could not identify a single member of the Group?/Band?/Combo? and certainly not any of their music. Kevin though that was hilarious.

Well, now I know another group called Blur. Apparently, they were ‘famous’ at about the same time – something which completely passed me by. It came to light this week as Blur impinged on politics. I learnt that the drummer, Dave Rowntree has been selected as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Mid-Sussex. I also learnt that Blur was described as Brit-Pop Band – which was all too much for me.

For more than 10 years, I have held a contract with EE for two mobiles. Nowadays, they consider us long standing customers because they suffer high high levels of churn amongst their clients. Our current contract runs out in May but they have been bombarding me for weeks with upgrade offers. Today, I finally gave in and I am pleased I did. We have 2 x Samsung Ultra S22 smartphones which a 5G and I am replacing them with 2 x the latest Samsung Ultra S24. They will cost me a bit less even though we will have unlimited, ‘free’ calls, texts and data which will also be available on roaming in Europe and the USA. Sometimes it pays to be loyal.

I have managed to fix a resale value for our 2 x Samsung S22 Ultras simply and easily with webuyanyphone.com for 2 x £306.00. Quite pleased with this afternoon’s deal!

Saturday, 9th March, 2024

Rather a duller start to the day but very warm. We’re having the annual central heating service soon. I’ve almost forgotten we have central heating at all we’ve used it so little this year. So light in the mornings now. You can just feel better things are coming.

Before I do anything else, I must wish little Cathy happy birthday. I say little because she always will be to me but she is 69 today. Very hard to believe and it does pull me up short to the nightmare that is aging. When I say to myself that this scene was nearly 60 years ago – long before colour televisions, home computers and the internet, long before mobile phones or dishwashers. Anyway, she won’t care. She’s very happy with her life. Long may it last! I think this holiday snap must have been about 1966-67. I was touring around Southern Ireland then.

Trouble with getting new phones is that they need new covers, new screen protectors and all the apps and data from the old ones copied across. Because I only do that every couple of years, I always forget how to do it and have to consult Google. I must make a mental note that I use the SmartSwitch app.

It means that I can copy across all our apps, texts, photos, address book, calendar and data without time consuming effort.

Sunday, 25th February, 2024

Lovely, Spring morning. Sunday papers are full of electioneering. You would be forgiven for thinking the Tories, running scared, will try to minimise their losses by announcing a ‘snap’ General Election to coincide with the Local Elections in May. I don’t think it will do them any good. Defeat is baked in but, we’ll see.

The local newspaper, Brighton & Worthing Argus ran a story this weekend of a huge whale that washed up on Littlehampton Beach a few days ago. Never seen a live / recently dead whale in the flesh. Would have liked to have witnessed this.

I am preparing our Lounge TV to be taken up to Surrey for P&C. It’s a 65″ Samsung Smart TV which will dominate their Lounge. They don’t use Sky TV at all but are content with a Freeview box even though viewing is quite high on their agenda as they are in later life. Everything for us goes through a Sky-Q box which makes life very simple but I’d forgotten so many of the facilities these smart TVs have incorporated like displaying pictures in downtime and making video calls with Google-Meet. I have ordered them a new Freeview box which will allow High definition pictures to go with their new set.

Going to have to get M all the way from Florida in BIG on our new, 75″ TV. Be able to see all her wrinkles! Unbelievable to think she’s going to be 60 next birthday.

Monday, 26th February, 2024

Bright but cold morning. Strong sea breeze. Amazed how light it was at 6.00 am. The dustbin men came early banging about in the street. I went out to collect ours (men’s work) and ended up retrieving about six others that seemed to have minds of their own in the wind. Good neighbour bit done for the day, I am settling down to a (self imposed) list of jobs.

I think I’m becoming an angry, old man. British Gas installed a smart meter in my Office and then text me regularly to submit readings. What’s the point of a smart meter if they don’t collect the data smartly? Tried speaking to someone. Failed. Tried an on-line chat. was sent round in ever decreasing circles of bot-chat boredom. Gave up. Tried to submit readings via the app and was told the System isn’t working at the moment. Try again later.

Thought I would contact Sainsburys about a missing product that we’ve been buying for years and has suddenly disappeared from local shelves and the national database. I have already spoken to the manufacturers – Unilever and their product company Walls who say their is no shortage in production. They gave me a Sainsburys number to phone. Try online or phoning Sainsburys and you are sent round in ever decreasing circles of bot-chat boredom

While I was indulging in a consumerist world of self-indulgence, I was talking to Kevin in Leeds, Dave in Bolton, Julie in Hull and others about the Tory Cabinet meeting being held in the North today to re-announce money for local development that they first announced in October 2023 and which they will be releasing in 2025 …. after they are out of Office. Another exercise in futility which leaves Towns from our past struggling in the cold and wet.

The MEN this morning features Bury Art Gallery that houses moderately important paintings by Turner and Landseer, et al, which are under threat from the inability of the council to afford repairs to the roof which is leaking down on to these treasures. It also features Oldham Council struggling to cover a shortfall of £30 million after having £200 million taken out of its budget over the years of Tory austerity.

Meanwhile, as they Tories pretend they are bringing barrowloads of cash to the North, the Hospitals, as the MEN features, are struggling to find cash to maintain buildings and services. This is a tired government on its last legs with a bunch of far right racists ruling the roost. Now is not the time to be living in impoverished areas struggling to survive.

Tuesday, 27th February, 2024

Lovely Spring morning. The sap is rising. Had to test my INR and report to the Hospital. I am back to normal or as close to normal as I will ever be. (Yes, I know, I will never be normal.) I have thanked the anticoagulation department for their help. Window cleaner has arrived. It is the same one we engaged when we arrived here 7 years ago and he is still charging £18.00 for a good job.

If you know me and/or you are a regular reader, you will know that I like facts, statistics and research. After completing a initial Honours Degree, I immediately embarked on a Research Masters Degree into the history of the Labour Party. I loved it. I knew instantly that I’d found my forte. I spent hours, days, weeks in Manchester Rotunda Library, the John Rylands Research Institute in Deansgate, in the bowels of the stacks of Huddersfield University Library. I accessed the amazing resources of Oxford and Cambridge Universities electronically. I travelled to Greece with armfuls of photocopies of Trade Union History, German Sociologists political commentaries, early Labour MPs biographies, etc..

Obviously, I was a real bundle of fun at that time. I was working to obliterate past failures. However, although I didn’t go on to complete the Doctorate because it would have taken up too much of my life, I remain intrinsically interested and involved in Labour Party politics. My interest comes from my research into the origins of Labour history and the precursor to the party was the Labour Representation Committee. On this day in 1900, Richard Bell was elected MP for a Derby constituency along with Keir Hardie.

During the day, I talk to lots of people from University days and from College days. We all review our relationships and actions from the past and these discussions often involve objective memories. One of the things which has recently become current is our Students’ Union Card. I had one from Ripon College, one from the Open University and one from Huddersfield University. Amazing how many have kept theirs. Have you, Dear Reader? I posted mine on-line today. I’ve already been contacted by 149 past students. You’ve either got it or …

Lovely evening in the garden full of bird song. Pauline cooked Calamari out there. Delicious!

Wednesday, 28th February, 2024

Not a good night. Up early. Feeling a bit low. Expecting a delivery from Curry’s of a new television. The time slot was 9.00 am until 1.00 pm. Not ideal and they arrived at 12.55 pm. Two lads who were allocated 10 mins to deliver, unpack, connect up and remove the packaging before moving on to their next delivery. Fortunately, I was able to make it easy for them. I did the setting up for a Bulgarian and a former BBC technician fallen on hard times.

They left with smiles on their faces. The Bulgarian swearing that he would meet me in Greece in the Summer. Meanwhile, we had to drive down to the beach to collect an order of sushi-quality Tuna which was being sold off cheaply. The Fishmongers told us that so many people couldn’t afford top quality fresh fish that there is a glut in the market at the moment and they were discounting things we buy regularly.

While we were there, we bought some freshly caught Torbay Soles which nearly killed us to skin when we got them home.

We drove on to the beach side where the sea was looking cold and uninviting. The pebble beach was hard and uninviting. The sky was grey and … uninviting. Drove home to do my exercise routine. I am fighting the fat, old, wrinkly persona of old people as much as I can. I am going to incorporate rowing into my regime immediately because I can’t afford to stand still.

Thursday, 29th February, 2024

The end of February 2024. Leap Year Day. I am still waiting for my proposal. My wife was reading about the current trend for couples holidaying separately. I think she’s trying to tell me something. Who will she get to carry her bags?

What I can tell you is that February has got to go down as the wettest on record. It is pouring with rain … AGAIN. This is supposed to be the sun centre of the UK. I think someone moved West Sussex to North Wales in the middle of the night. Had to shop at Sainsburys because the carpark is underground and dry.

I’ve rather caught Sainsburys out not telling the truth. A product that we’ve bought consistently over the past couple of years. They have stocked a Greek Yoghurt Ice Cream which is lovely and very low in calories. Suddenly the shelves are bare. When I enquired of Customer Service, I was told it was a supply problem. Having interrogated Unilever & Walls, they assure me they have plenty but haven’t been asked for them. I don’t take No for an answer. Guess where I’m going next. Is my life too exciting?

I am married to a Cook. She has always been passionate about cooking (not about me.) She has collected shelves of Cookery Books, Files of cuttings and Databases of recipes that she has been collecting for over 40 years and she watches everything she can to pick up ideas for new ingredients, dishes and menus. As a result, I have watched every TV chef known to man. In fact, I wanted to create a Cookery Blog that she could maintain and take up advertising on. I’m sure it would have been a money spinner. She didn’t show the interest and I dropped it.

You may be aware of a duo known as The Hairy Bikers – two men from the North East whose unique selling point is there bluff, Northern honesty. Today it was announced that Dave Myers – probably the more intelligent, educated one of the pair succumbed to the recurrence of a cancer which reappeared over the past three years. He was only 66 and once again underlines the brevity and fragility of life.

Lack of checks often is at the root of these problems. However persuasive one is, it can be very difficult to get full examinations. We are already discussing having regular, private provision Whole Body MRI scans perhaps every 2-3 years so that problems can be detected early and referred for action quickly. It isn’t cheap but, what is the point in having money if we die with it?

Friday, 1st March, 2024

Happy March, Dear Reader. Up early to load the car with a 65″ Smart TV to take up to Surrey. It is the first day of meteorological Spring and it felt nice. Daffodils line the streets, nice temperature and some sunshine. What more could you want? You could have come with me but that’s your loss.

Missing out the M25, we negotiated the Porches, Aston Martins and Ferraris of the Chelsea set in Cobham and moved on to West Byfleet. The first two cars in front of us were worth around £300,000.

As we drove, I listened to my favourite Political Podcast – The Newsagents which I streamed from my phone and through my car speakers. It is a great way to pass the time. I hardly notice the drive.

P&C were waiting. I am not very familiar with Freeview so it was a tricky installation time. Still, we took their 55″ TV up to the Ironing Room and sorted that out. and installed their new 65″ TV in the Lounge with their Freeview box. Life seemed to be almost restored to normal. The one hitch was their Netflix account which wasn’t working. I’ve had to give them access to mine for now. P&C are not so mobile now and the TV selection is increasingly important to them.

By 1.00 pm we were driving home. It takes about an hour and a quarter. The M25 was kind to us today. A lovely morning of warm sunny weather was replaced by yet more rain this afternoon. It felt like a bit of an anti climax. Actually ate cheese & biscuits for Lunch. Immediately regretted it but have to move on.

Heard from Julie who is working hard on her fitness with a personal trainer and down in the allotment with her vegetables. Kevin is browsing the political cartoons and John R who is preparing the next lecture. I can usually drive non-stop for 15 hours across Europe without much fatigue. At the moment, I am out of training and a three hour round trip to Surrey leaves me tired and aching. More training needed! Might actually have a day off from the Gym today.

Saturday, 2nd March, 2024

Another day and more rain. This has been the warmest and wettest February on record down here. It’s a bit depressing.

We are just going to have to get some sun soon … well, after we’ve lost some weight, regained some more fitness and been signed off formally by Oncology.

It all makes me feel old. I remember, as a lad at home being told to get my haircut and resolving that I would never have my haircut again when I left home. It didn’t last, of course. These days, I’m pleased to have hair at all. I remember seeing old people being weak limbed, unsteady in their balance and generally feeble and thinking, I’m never going to get like that. Now, after an hour at my desk, I get up and can barely walk. My limbs and muscles take ages to assert their authority over my body and propel me forward. You wouldn’t think I was in the Gym for two hours every day.

I must admit that I concentrate almost almost entirely on cardio work and it has vastly improved my heart rate, blood pressure and stamina. I do know I have to start working on strength and muscle building as well as stretching, suppleness and balance. I can feel my body losing some of those aspects. I know there are some things you can’t legislate for.

This girl above could have taught me a lot about muscle retention. She was from my home town in Derby and had a stellar career but died at the ridiculously young of 74. Much good her scientific knowledge did for her. Like my wife, she had been Head Girl of her school and Captain of the Netball Team.

I don’t know how my own body works, don’t know where most bits are. Don’t know even if I’ve still got some bits or what to do with them if I have. I just keep plugging on and panicking on a regular basis.

The aim, of course, is not just to live a long time but to live a healthy, long life. Not only that, it is important to not shutdown and restrict life because of age. My little sister, Liz, has worked with the elderly for years. Now she’s elderly herself. She has done all sorts of little jobs like Manchester Strategic Director Social Services, Executive director of Adult Social Care for the tri-borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster in London and other things.

You would think she would retire into something comfortable and normal but she’s chosen to live on a …. House Boat on the Grand Union Canal. Can you believe it? But, at the age of 66, this little hippy chick thinks she’s so cool but she’s still got a lot of growing up to do. In maturity, she’ll look back on these rebel years and laugh.

Pleased to report that, once again, the sun has come out and it is bright and warm. Time for a trip to the Gym.

Sunday, 18th February, 2024

Three years ago today, Winter ended, life was revived and a long awaited Spring arrived. Out of the mists of time, an old life seemed to offer hope. OK, maybe a bit melodramatic but never underplay things, Dear Reader.

The first ‘official’ UK Lockdown was still a month away but we had already self-imposed it. Being of the demographic most susceptible to Covid, we had withdrawn from our Health Club and largely withdrawn from meeting people. We were having home deliveries of supermarket shopping, exercising outside while preparing our Home Gym, wearing masks and feeling quite fearful of the future. Suddenly, it appeared that a single vaccination could solve all our problems and on this day we had ours. It felt momentous.

Our life had been disrupted, Three different travel arrangements including a couple of months booking of a villa in Tenerife had to be cancelled and the battle to reclaim the upfront payments was starting. It all took a long time but it is beginning to feel that we came through it largely unscathed. People are still being hospitalised with Covid. People are still dying of Covid. Some people’s live are utterly blighted with Long-Covid. We feel justified in our precautions. No Covid. We will live to see a Labour Government. And the life that was restarted three years ago will be re-invigorated by me this year.

At least it has turned into a lovely, sunny and warm day. We reached 17C/63F which was warmer than Athens and Florida. I am enjoying my diet and exercise routine and I am feeling determined. The thought for the day is: Never Give Up!

Monday, 19th February, 2024

My little brother, Bob, joins the unlucky 72th club today. We wish him happy birthday. He seems content in his retirement and particularly in his developing hobby of photography. I think the photograph was taken outside Buckingham Palace circa 1955. I’ve cut myself out of it to maintain its purity. Doesn’t he look a little angel? What a long way we’ve come.

Everything changes across time. Life is in a constant state of flux which may explain why we cling on to familiarities and routines – almost blindly – like some anchor in the eternal storm. In fact, this morning I was thinking about custom & practice as a general rule. It actually is a ‘thing’ in law and is defined as a long-standing occurrence that is continuously applied, acknowledged and expected by all. But it is the way human beings construct it in their lives that I wanted to consider today.

It has been a deliberate policy of mine for many years. I don’t always find it easy but I force myself to embrace change to find new opportunity for experience. I insist on being an early adopter of technology which can be really challenging for many older people. I try to embrace or at least explore new ideas and movements. I was reminded of this when we shopped this morning and I took out bags from the car.

Who even remembers the time when you turned up to the supermarket and were given unlimited plastic carrier bags to carry shopping away? Could you even put a year on when we were starting to phase them out? Well, it was 9 years ago. I remember taking a mountain of about 40 ‘free’ bags away to delay the problem but we quickly got into a pattern of taking our own bags. We bought lots in France and still use them for their cachet. Amazing how they become a talking point amongst shoppers. The world is still turning.

The Manchester Evening News sends me daily briefings of M24 and beyond. This morning, there was this feature. It meant something to me because we did a special trip to Oldham for an expatriate who couldn’t get Hollands Pies and Oven Bottom Muffins. It drew my attention further because the head baker at this featured bakery in Waterhead is one of Pauline’s in-laws. Ex-pats so often get a longing for what they have left behind.

I like to go back to meet people and places from my past but technology is so quick to advance and so exciting that I just have to go forward and have it as soon as possible. Age has made me a little more cautious. I don’t take quite as many risks but time is still of the essence. Honda seem to know that. They are constantly tempting me. They know I want their new car but I am trying to control myself … for a while.

Tuesday, 20th February, 2024

Our early for the first part of my annual medical review. The Surgery carpark was packed but the surgery waiting room was almost empty. Seems most people were queuing for prescriptions in the attached Pharmacy. I was seen on time and very briskly reviewed what has been a difficult year. Blood Pressure great – 124/74 pulse 55. Foot check produced, You’ve got good feet. Blood and Urine samples will be analysed and my second part of the review will be in a fortnight.

In this week a year ago, I was going for quite an uncomfortable biopsy which quickly found I had a reasonably aggressive prostate cancer. The consequence of that led to a year of discomfort but it is over now at least for a while.

Got home to a lot of junk mail on the mat. Only one item was for me. I wonder if you can guess which one. It is like this every day now and most is duplicated on email and text message as well. Yesterday was Hilary’s Blinds which we get every other week since we bought from them 7 years ago. Every week I get paper, email and text adverts from Toner Giant who I buy from once a year and every week we get piles of fliers delivered by hand from local businesses. I like junk mail but it can get a bit much.

Today, Labour has put out a reason for the retired to vote for them. They will guarantee the Triple Lock State Pension which is under attack all around. UK has one of the poorest State Pension provisions in the Western World and this will just stop many falling behind. It doesn’t bear thinking about how anyone exists purely on their state pension but, at least this helps.

Wednesday, 21st February, 2024

Well, it’s raining again. Beginning to think I’ve moved to live in Wales without realising it. At least there is one upside. No central heating. I don’t think I can remember a winter in my adult lifetime when we have hardly used the central heating. It is quite amazing. Even in Greece in October we put the underfloor heating on.

Yet another accident on the M62 this morning. This one has over a two hour delay on the stretch we would have been driving to work. It is only Wednesday and this is the third major incident of the week. I wonder why we didn’t move south earlier. It must have been some fatal attraction to the pain.

All the mood music is finally going against the Tories. We’ve had the popular backlash finally provoked by the Post Office drama on TV. We’ve had the first element of the Covid Enquiry televised in all its uncomfortable detail and now we’ve got the Covid drama perfectly written by Dr. Rachael Clarke who I’ve been following on Twitter (X) for the last few years and which is brilliantly dramatised by Jed Mercurio of Bodyguard and Line of Duty fame. Watched the first of three episodes of Breathtaking which dramatises those dreadful times of Covid overload in hospitals contrasted with the politicians and co-opted senior medics assuring us, falsely, that everything was fine.

While Johnson, Hancock and Harries assured us that everything was fine and there was plenty of PPE and covid tests for medical staff, nurses were in fact kitting themselves out with bin bags, doctors had inappropriate face masks and people were discharged without tests. Just another Tory scandal and we still have the Windrush to be settled along with the infected blood scandal to be faced. It’s all going very well.

Oh, to live a long and healthy life! The old guy on the right in this photograph was my First Year Tutor at college. When I arrived there in 1969, I thought he was so old. 55 years later, he is still standing and so is his wife. Lucky man.

Thursday, 22nd February, 2024

Yest another dull, wet day of low cloud and gloom. The temperature has stayed at 11C/52F night and day for 72 hours. Today is a shopping day. I took the risk and went down to LIDL! I know, Dear Reader, a worrying fall in standards but I only buy their Almond Milk. Not only is theirs the cheapest but it is the tastiest. I buy it in bulk and it is my go-to drink during the day.

Every week, Lidl seem to do a Flavour of the Week based on a country or a region. This week it is Italy. Normally, it would take my interest but we fell for this before when it was Greek Week and everything we bought was the cheapest, poorest quality thing we could have bought in Greece in the past.

We were on our way to the harbour fish shop for prawns and salmon. The seaside was deserted because of the weather. Nothing stops the seas and the tides. It was still coming in as I stopped to walk in the gentle rain this morning. There is a sort of foreboding in the green-grey sea crashing on the beach under leaden skies this morning.

This weather is making me lethargic and fed up. I should be doing so much but can’t really be bothered.

Back home via Sainsburys for the weekly shop. Something has happened in the past couple of weeks. Shelves are well stacked to overflowing. Fresh produce is plentiful. I love asparagus and eat it about 3 times a week along with Green/French beans. Suddenly there are boxes of both all the time. Some management decision has been made to effect this.

Back home for coffee and the latest political storm in a teacup. We’ll know by the end of the day whether the Speaker will still be in post. I don’t rate him anyway. He is intellectually and emotionally unsuited to managing the House of Commons but he was chosen by the Tories as an alternative to the mental acuity and emotional strength of Bercow who they engineered out after Brexit.

So easy to feel imprisoned by this weather – under house arrest. I will not allow it. I’m going to break free and start creating waves. Hold on, hold on ….

Friday, 23rd February, 2024

Bad night. Didn’t sleep well. Dreams drifting constantly across the screen of dreams. I don’t think I was watching anything which provoked this but a woman imprisoned in a room gagged and restricted kept going round and round. Last night I was watching the covid scandal dramatisation. Maybe that was the source. Anyway, I finally fell asleep when it was time to get up.

Learnt yesterday of the death of a man who taught Economics in our school for about a decade in the 1980s. He was just 69 and had moved out of teaching and into Local Authority work in North Wales. That’s probably what did for him.

I feel at a loose end. A Times journalist wrote this week of being in God’s Waiting Room and, while I don’t believe in any god, it does feel a bit like marking time and waiting for something to happen. It goes totally against the grain. I hate mindlessness and time filling. Got to get a project on the go.

At the moment, I am reduced to listening to political podcasts and chatting to friends across the country. Most of them are retired and are experiencing similar challenges so understand the problem. I am trying to distract myself by investigating and preparing for my next car which is likely to be a Honda CR-V e:PHEV Plug-in hybrid.

The Honda Connect which we have at the moment is greatly upgraded with many more facilities. Currently, our car has a built in 3G mobile phone connection for emergencies. It is enhanced in the new model to allow for remote charging, remote heating up/defrosting, remote Find my Car facility and remote Intruder Alert/Security Alarm all linked to our phones. It even has an automatic parking facility. Everything a man of a certain age and with the prospect of onset dementia could need. Now all I need is a spare £57,000 and and to put in an order.

Quite a nice day outside but I’m going in the Gym to watch the Test Match. I should have done this in earlier years. Exercising while watching sport is so much better for me than being a passive spectator.

Saturday, 24th February, 2024

Another poor night. Don’t know what is wrong with me but my dreams are haunting at the moment. Blink twice for yes. Up late but out early to drive to Surrey. Great motorways today. M, P&C are back from Florida for a few days. We are hoping to donate our Lounge TV to P&C. It is a 65″ Samsung smart TV which will fill their lounge.

Today I’ve ordered an update 75″ Samsung edition which I’ve been considering for a few days. We have 6 other TVs as it is and nowhere else to put our current model and thought it would help P&C.

It was lovely to see M back home from Florida. We need to get back there to join her in the near future. She made us a lovely Lunch of Soup (Pea & Ham), Salad & Sushi. It was delicious. It was great to see her and share our thoughts. She is a kind girl. I took this photo at the bottom of her garden.

Back home after driving through Cobham rather than the M25, we relaxed into a bottle of pink champagne with cheese and biscuits. During the day, I talked to my Northern friends – Julie, Kevin, JohnR and JohnM. England crashed out to Scotland in the Calcutta Cup. I am left with a hole in my life.