Sunday, 2nd October, 2022
Warm but very wet opening to the day. Really interesting time in the political sphere at the moment as the Tory Party gets closer to imploding than it ever has in my lifetime and in most lifetimes. There really is a chance that they could be reduced to a rump of under 100 MPs at the next election. Spent the first couple of hours watching Sophie Ridge and Laura Kuenssberg political interviews. Neither were prepared to push their subjects hard enough for my choice. Still too deferential for me.
Actually, I’m quite enjoying a series of foreign language films on Amazon Prime. I’ve just finished a fascinating one called: The Working Girl / Tu unmérites amour. (You deserve a lover) It is a most unlikely subject for me to watch. It features a girl who is involved in prostitution but wants a real relationship. I don’t know how I got drawn into it but I found myself captivated by the main actress playing the central roll.
Her name is Hafzia Herzi and she is French / Tunisian / Algerian hence her dark eyes and olive skin. She has the absolutely fascinating mixture of strength and vulnerability and of emotion conveyed through wordless inscrutability.
The backdrop to the film is the Parisian streets which I liked and, being soft, I was pleased to see that she escaped the city and found a type of resolution in love as she left. It was a work in progress like most of life. I think I am becoming more romantic in my old age or, maybe, just becoming a silly, old man. Whatever you do, don’t tell my wife.
Just reviewing my entertainment for the day and I notice it centres around women. The football was a complete write-off with City humiliating United 6 – 3 although it could have been 10 – 0. I think I’m off football.
Monday, 3rd October, 2022
Didn’t sleep well – listening to BBC World Service at 4.30 am and then the Tory U-Turn early on. It helps to push other thoughts aside and concentrate on politics. Did like this graphic tweeted by one wag who found this chalked on the street outside the chancellor’s home:
I actually heard one policy I completely agree with. The Tories are talking about instituting a Central Bank Digital Currency in the UK. This would swiftly bring about the death of cash. The two policies go together and it can’t come soon enough for me. I never have cash. I don’t know how to use coins or even what they look like anymore. I have even stopped using credit cards almost entirely. My phone, iPad and computer are the only things I need for paying, recording and banking. In the Tory’s view, hard money will just quickly die out.
We went out early to Worthing to visit CLOTHES SHOPS!! It was a softly grey but very warm and windless morning. The shopping is on the Beach road along the almost deserted pebble beach.
By the time we walked back to the car, the sun was up, the sky was blue and the walking was delightful.
Tuesday, 4th October, 2022
Woke at 4.30 am. It is so dark. Radio on at 5.00 am for World News. Even downstairs with orange juice and tea at 7.00 am, it is still quite dark outside. I hate this section of the year:
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
This is Dylan Thomas’ expression of the desire not to give up at approaching death. We must not also. That is exactly why I keep exercising, keep reading, writing, thinking about politics and travel. Body and mind must be exercised continually. I may be flabbier in both than I would like but I am still trying.
These two reprobates popped up yesterday meeting in Kypseli, Athens at Fokionos Negri. I first met them in 1982. The one on the left was a teenager whose father’s hotel I was staying in. The one on the right was part of a duo singing in the Old Captain’s Bar on the island. They were a Simon & Garfunkel tribute band. He was Paul Simon and he even had hair. Oh, how times have changed.
Of course, I was in a tribute band with Kevin in the early 1970s. A brilliant clip of our talents has recently been unearthed and I present them to you now.
Wednesday, 5th October, 2022
Incredibly warm night and even warmer morning. Not a lot of sun around but lovely nonetheless.
It is Pauline’s 71st birthday so I am on best behaviour. On the whole, we don’t celebrate birthdays. Would you celebrate being 71? I left a box of chocolates that I know she likes and this card. Unfortunately, I committed the cliché mistake of leaving the price on the back.
She has celebrated by accompanying me on a 2hr walk. It is so lovely to be out in shorts and tee-shirt in October. Actually, my legs are quite tired today. I have walked almost 4,000 miles this year already so it’s not surprising. We are trying to push old age behind us and to keep it there as long as possible.
My old friend and Cumbrian poet, Norman Nicholson, wrote a wonderful poem about how we anticipate age and respectability in youth and then disavow it in old age:
Rising Five
I’m rising five” he said
“Not four” and the little coils of hair
Un-clicked themselves upon his head.
His spectacles, brimful of eyes to stare
At me and the meadow, reflected cones of light
Above his toffee-buckled cheeks. He’d been alive
Fifty-six months or perhaps a week more;
Not four
But rising five.
Around him in the field, the cells of spring
Bubbled and doubled; buds unbuttoned; shoot
And stem shook out the creases from their frills,
And every tree was swilled with green.
It was the season after blossoming,
Before the forming of the fruit:
Not May
But rising June.
And in the sky
The dust dissected the tangential light:
Not day
But rising night;
Not now
But rising soon.
The new buds push the old leaves from the bough.
We drop our youth behind us like a boy
Throwing away his toffee-wrappers. We never see the flower,
But only the fruit in the flower; never the fruit,
But only the rot in the fruit. We look for the marriage bed
In the baby’s cradle; we look for the grave in the bed;
Not living
But rising dead.
Norman Nicholson (from Complete Verse, Jonathan Cape, 1999)
I’ve almost forgotten that age before tired legs and bad backs. Still, I’ve got to fit in an hour in the Gym and then husbandly duties …. well making a Birthday meal. Today it will be:
- Hot Olive Bread with Greek Olive Oil and Balsamic Dip
- Fresh Pasta with Frutti de Mare and White Wine & Garlic Butter Sauce
- Mixed Berry Gateaux with Whipped Cream
All sounds very filling and unhelpful to dieters but we are not 71 every day …. unfortunately. The next big gulp is 80.
Thursday, 6th October, 2022
Incredibly warm night. I woke up at 3.30 am, soaking wet with sweat. I panicked thinking I must be seriously ill. Turned out the temperature was the problem. It was strange because I looked out of the window on a bright moon and a sky full of stars. In October, a clear sky would usually mean low temperatures. Autumn is not the natural time for travelling although the birds think it is. Here they are amassing on the wires of pylons at the Garden Centre deciding which flight path to take.
The warm night gave way to an equally warm and sunny morning. Shopping – Christmas Cakes and Christmas Puddings ingredients on the list. We will never taste them but Pauline’s family will back in Surrey. This weekend will be a hive of industry with cakes baked in the kitchen and puddings steamed outside in the garden for 8 hours at a stretch. They will be transported up to Surrey when we go to collect P&C from Heathrow later in the month.
We are preparing for three months away. The House insurance has been sorted out. The security and maintenance have been dealt with including CCTV, Alarms, Wi-Fi heating and lighting controls. We have four lots of neighbours on observation patrols and with keys. Pauline is dealing with packing and clothes. I am dealing with flights, hotel en route, car hire while we are there, etc.. We have the Tory government shenanigans for trashing the exchange rate and making everything more expensive. It will cost us over £6,000 to hire a car now which is considerably up on what it was when I first looked in late August. Still, it is what it is.
Feeling a little sad this evening. Don’t know why. Maybe it is the dying of the year – Autumn into Winter. New years promise so much but …
Friday, 7th October, 2022
Another incredibly warm night and gloriously warm start to this morning. At 7.00 am, the sky was alive with reflected light and activity from Gatwick.
Didn’t sleep particularly well again and woke at 5.00 am reviewing all the jobs I have to and all the ambitions still to achieve. When I’m thwarted, I don’t give up. It just makes me try even harder to find a way. What I do like doing is out with the old and in with the new. I like getting rid of ‘stuff’. De-cluttering is delightful. Today we booked an early slot at the Recycling Site to take things which I just haven’t used for so long.
A Digital SLR camera which I had bought for me almost 15 years ago by school but haven’t used for the past 5 years at least and a tripod that went it. About 5 lenses and filters which my smartphone can far outdo. A hundred different computer leads and fittings that are now redundant. A laptop that has outlived its usefulness and been replaced long ago.
All of these things go into the back of the car and have to fight for space with the prunings of 2 x 20 ft Fig Trees. I think I’ve observed this before but the staff at the site are unbelievable polite, friendly and helpful. I parked the car, opened up the back and staff leapt up to help direct me to the right areas. One saw all the tree branches and immediately helped me carry them to the skip. Makes me actually want to do the right thing and go back there again.
I’ve been watching these things develop as I’ve been on my walks. Thought I would take a photo today. They look like a cross between peaches and orange eggs. Actually, they are the most beautiful seed capsules of a clematis which is sprawling over someone’s fence.
Saturday, 8th October, 2022
Didn’t sleep well for a second night. Troubled mind. Woke early and it is SO dark! What a gorgeous day has opened. Clear blue sky and strong sunshine. I am garden tidying, walking and making lots of phone calls.
By the way, just found out that the golden eggs are seed pods of the Passion Flower. How could I have made such a mistake about Passion?
Phone my friends in Oldham to arrange visits. Lovely to hear their voices. Immediately keen for us to call round. Can’t wait to drop in and see them. Brian in Royton is celebrating his birthday today. Going to see him and his wife, Val.. Margaret and Little Viv will meet us at a secret location they refuse to confirm too early. All sorts of people to just surprise!
Been talking to car hire companies in Spring Hill, Florida about car rental for three months. Looks like we will use Enterprise. Nobody is cheap but we need to be mobile without being dependent on others.
Booking Flights, Three months car hire and living expenses for three months puts quite a strain on credit card limits. We could pay cash upfront but Mastercard includes protective insurance. I’ve had to phone our personal banking manager to double our credit limit. I talked to a lovely girl from Southend to organise that. Her Dad was a Maths teacher in the 1950s – 70s. The last time I was in Southend was for a job interview back in 1978. I got the job – Assistant Head of English – but didn’t take up the post because I couldn’t find anywhere reasonable to live at the time.
Southend is on the lead into Canvey Island. I’m going to be spending three months in Spring Hill on the edge of Pine Island. I think I know which one I would prefer to spend my winter on.