2nd March, 2014
Can you believe it? Almost April already! It has been another pleasant day of Spring weather until darkness when heavy rain set in. That’s the way the world should be organised.
Interesting week coming up. Pauline is having a fasting blood test tomorrow. I’m then driving her in to town to buy the new coat she hasn’t stopped talking about for months. She insists she needs it desperately. Why shouldn’t she? She can have as many coats as she wants. You only live once. And, on that theme, I will be 63 in one month and we will have been retired for exactly 5 years. Why does it advance so swiftly and so silently? Later in the week, I’m going in to have a 24hr ECG monitor fitted. I’m hoping it will illustrate the extent of my heart problem.
3rd March, 2014
Out early today to take Pauline for her blood test. The morning is quite chilly but dry. I think the daffs may regretting emerging.
Heard from a Sifnos friend which reminded me that I must contact Martin.
For some reason, I felt lethargic and lacklustre and ducked going to the gym which was lazy and foolish and I regretted shortly after making the decision. We are going to have a busy day tomorrow to make up.
We have to plan our trains and underground to get to the dentist in Westminster on Monday of next week. Watched an interesting analysis of the ‘London Economic Pull’ which clearly explains why property around us has increased by 30+% in the 3 years we’ve been here and why properties sell within days of going on sale. No one who works in the city can afford to live there. It only takes 20-30 minutes to get there by train from Woking where prices are relatively high but much more affordable. In fact, many are prepared to commute 2 hours each way each day to buy property they like.
4th March, 2014
Chilly start to a beautifully sunny day. Just 2C/39F although it is forecast to reach 10C/50F. We are off to the Peacock Centre in Woking to give Pauline a spot of ‘retail therapy’ as if she didn’t get enough on-line!
The strangest thing happened when we went shopping. Pauline took me in to look at the £80.00 coat she had viewed last Saturday and had decided she wanted my opinion on before buying it. Just as she was trying the coat on in the Principles section of Debenhams, an announcement was made across the store that all coats were ‘Half Price’ just for today. My considered opinion saved us £40.00 and Pauline got her coat!
Amazingly, the temperature reached 16C/61F this afternoon. The warmest this Spring. Chris, our Honda salesman/friend from Huddersfield phoned just to touch base. We look forward to seeing him in about a month.
5th March, 2014
Apart from going for a blood test. I hardly have any blood left in my arm now. It is five years since I started taking warfarin and statins.
The rest of the day was taken up with research, photography plus editing and presenting material for the Management Committee to present to Woking Council.
Pauline & I will have to attend a Planning Hearing in mid – late April. Ironically, we received a lovely letter from our Sifnos friends this afternoon.
6th March, 2014
Chilly start to a wonderful, Spring day. Had to attend the local hospital to have an ambulatory ECG monitor fitted. Straight off to the Supermarket to do the weekly shop and then home to finish of the research and email it off. I have a Diary to keep for the 24hrs to allow the analysis to be tied in with the readings. There was some suggestion this morning that I may have to have a pacemaker fitted. Certainly, my heart was originally in intermittent atrial fibrillation but in recent times it is in that state every time it is checked. May be they will be able to shock it back in to regularity.
Pauline’s friend, Margaret, phoned to say her daughter had had a baby daughter after a particularly long and difficult delivery which spread over three days. Unimaginable! We’re going to visit Margaret in Yorkshire in a month.
I’m determined to do a standard day so, after coffee and reading the paper, we go to the Health Club for an hour. Thirty minutes on the jogging machine followed by fifteen minutes on a cycle. We left the rowing machine out today to avoid dislodging the chest sensors. Even so, I was sweating as we left. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to shower because of the sensors. Pauline had to sponge me down. Too much information? Sorry!
7th March, 2014
Wonderful day which reached 21C/69F in mid-afternoon. Lovely sunshine. We went out reasonably early to return the ECG monitor. By the time we returned, the gardeners had arrived and were hard at it. The grounds are tended every Friday. We’ve recently appointed a new team of gardeners at a cost of £12,000.00 per year. They are excellent and very hard working.
It is wonderful to see the Spring signs on trees and bushes, plants and bulbs and the abundance of birdlife. It was a planning stipulation of Woking Borough Council that bird boxes were put up on the trees throughout the property. We wake up to a concerto of thrushes advertising their wares.
8th March, 2014
Another Wonderful Spring Day. Sunny and 16C/61F. It makes one celebrate being alive! I got so carried away, I had my hair cut. Around here they charge £35.00 to cut men’s hair. Mine is done for free. Working on the principle that my hair is cut 6 times per year, in the past 36 years at today’s prices, I’ve saved 6 x £35.00 = £210.00 x 36 = £7,560.00. Could have had a really good meal out and a bottle of fine wine for that price.