Sunday, 3rd September, 2023
Well it looks like the Indian Summer is coming. Just as well because I am stuck here pining for more. We have put the suitcases back into store. At least we have a south-facing garden because Pauline insisted on it. I wanted a bigger house but she wanted sunshine and won. She was probably right although I won’t be admitting it to her.
I am talking to friends a lot at the moment because I cannot go to meet them. I have to face this medical course I’m on with realism and determination. I am just 5 weeks away from the hardest part and then another 5 weeks until I get a verdict.
I am renowned for learning someone’s life story within 5 minutes of meeting them but I am always surprised when I learn new things about old friends. In contact with three of them over the past couple of days, I learnt that one has had two bouts of breast cancer to deal with, one has the early stages of the hereditary disease known as Dupuytren’s Contracture. The third one just doesn’t like cheese. I mean, who doesn’t like cheese? I’m on a diet but I’d kill for some Dolcelatte right now …. and it’s only 9.30 am!
So much for the BBC weather forecast. It’s 1.00 pm and we are already seeing 27C/81F. Both sunshades up and out. Dinner outside tonight. Now for a 2-hr walk. The beach will be packed so the countryside today. At least the kids go back to school on Tuesday here so the beach will be left to the grownups. Might have a swim. There again ….
Monday, 4th September, 2023
Gorgeously warm night and a lovely start to the day. I’m starting this at 9.00 am as the blue sky and sunshine is already delivering 22C/70F. Good day in prospect. Nothing special – walking, garden tidying, etc..
Got a nagging hurt inside me this morning. Reading an article about my forthcoming treatment – well, about one man’s experience. You can read it here.
Have found it upsetting. Of course, it is probably just the coward coming out in me. Makes me feel icy – even in this warm weather – and lonely. I wasn’t helped by something else that appeared on my phone, iPad and computer. It was the anniversary of the death from brain cancer of one of our Oldham friends. His widow, Diane, who also taught with us, put on a sad, sad piece marking the occasion from Woodstock in New York which is where they made their last trip. We were in New York at the same time.
Frank was headteacher of a private school in Oldham they bought in the 1990s and ran until about 5 years ago. He had two, main hobbies – cycling (He was a fitness fanatic.) and playing the guitar (He had a number of them.) Diane’s tribute to him one year on was a guitar piece I had heard many times before but didn’t know much about. It is the R.E.M piece: Everybody Hurts with that famously , hauntingly, sad riff that tears into one’s memories and scatters them across the sky in razor-sharp shards of glass ensuring everybody really hurts.
Hold on. Hold on.
Tuesday, 5th September, 2023
Must start today by wishing my very, very old sister-in-law happy 86th birthday. Born in 1937, can you imagine living to that age. She’ll probably see me out if the family tradition is sustained. Hope she has a nice day in the sunshine.
Hot, hot, hot. We saw 28C/83F yesterday which was the Athens night time temperature but felt scorching here for walking. We are forecast for the week to get hotter which I will love although I’m not sure Phyllis will approve. This is exactly the sort of weather I revel in. We haven’t been to the beach yet but we must in the next few days while the kids are in school.
Today, I am spring cleaning the garden … in Autumn. I am the world’s natural tidier. Things must not be out of place or I feel uncomfortable. There is creativity in untidiness but, for me, it is the drawing together of disparate elements that unite to make the whole. For me, it is the same with ideas and communications. I can’t allow an idea or subject to go by without understanding it. I cannot hear or see a word that I don’t understand without immediately looking it up. I am a nightmare for other people because I just stop in the middle of the road until I have resolved those sorts of things.
Do you send communications – letters, emails, texts, etc., to people and then they make you wait for ever for a reply? I can’t do that myself. If someone contacts me, I see it as my responsibility to reply straight away. Actually, I prefer to communicate face to face, skin to skin knowing that I have made myself understood. Of course, modern life means so much contact is remote and I regret that but take advantage of it. It does allow me to control the narrative more and do it in my way.
Our lovely neighbours are doing at the moment what we did 40 years ago … falling in love with Greek islands. In their case, Skiathos. They are excited and planning to build/buy/long term rent a property on the island that they can retire to in the future. They’ve only ever been there in the height of Summer. Some people assume that is what the island is like all year round.
Last weekend, most people left the islands for their mundane jobs back home leaving behind 38C of weather. Yesterday, the weather broke and, as so often in September, the first rains for 6 months hit the country hard. This was Skiathos, their holiday idyll, yesterday.
We, on the other hand, were experiencing 30C/86F and I was in my element – the sauna of sun. Kevin was at home, convalescing but in his garden enjoying the lovely weather. Julie was happy that this late, hot sun was helping to ripen her impressive bell peppers – certainly better than anything I’ve achieved. John R was in the Lakes enjoying his last days of sailing before his ketch, Mariota, is hauled onto dry land for the winter. All of us sharing our experiences from across the country as we see ourselves through our retirement. I find it quite moving to be able to share.
Wednesday, 6th September, 2023
Another sunny day. Another hot day. Looking forward to it. Actually, Indian Summers are quite common and I looked back just two years to this photo down at the beach. On this day, the temperature was around 82F
The sea looked delicious although I didn’t go in. It’s the colours I love and the light. That’s why I love the Med..
But I am stuck at home and, at the moment, there are worse places to be. The weather is wonderful and the surroundings are beautiful. In the green space at the edge of our Development, the gardening contractors set aside a swathe of land to sow wild flowers. We were sceptical at the time but it has worked out quite nicely.
Just got to keep going. Hold on. Hold on.
Thursday, 7th September, 2023
Another gorgeous day. Went down to the beach but the tide was out. A few people had walked out to swim. I just took photos. Hot with no breeze. It was 28C/ at 10.00 am.
Feeling lonely. Talked to lots of people but without purpose. Did no work just my exercise programme. Can’t be bothered Blogging. Might have come to the end of the cycle after all these years ….
Friday, 8th September, 2023
A quiet, empty morning punctuated only by the arrival of workers. Our new, favourite carpenter is hear doing some adjustments to fitted, bedroom furniture. Across the road at our neighbours – the lovely Italians – the scaffolding went up yesterday and solar panel installers started work on the roof.
We have talked about doing the same for quite a while. At our ages, it is debatable whether the installation will ever be cost effective. I was surprised when Filippo told me that, with Local Authority subsidy, the 6-panel installation + Battery storage would come in at around £10,000. We spoke to the installers and may be in contact ourselves when we’ve thought it through. Our neighbour’s house is South Facing so panels are going on the front of the house. Our back garden is South Facing so any panels will be hidden away which is preferrable to us.
Went out to the Greengrocers to buy some cherries. The English season is very short and harvesting them is very labour intensive. They have always been expensive but I bought this bowl – 1.3 Kg of Kent cherries – for £19.13. I asked if I could have it on interest-free-credit but apparently Greengrocers don’t offer that.
Brilliant cartoon in The Times this morning encapsulating the chaos that is broken Britain. Dovetailing the news that Britain has paid to go back into the EU’s Horizon Science Programme after losing it through Brexit.
Saturday, 9th September, 2023
Our next-door neighbour, Dee, an English lecturer in a local College, went back to work on Monday and by Friday she was off work with …. Covid. The latest variant is spreading across the country like wildfire and there are rising numbers in hospitals. The latest covid variant – Pirola – is sweeping the States and figures have been rising rapidly here. I have to keep myself clear over the next few weeks as I travel to hospital each day for radiotherapy.
Had a hot flush in Sainsburys this morning. From normal to soaking wet in 30 secs. Goodness knows how women cope with the menopause. At 10.30 am, the temperature outside was 28C/83F as we walked into an cool, airconditioned store. Being completely contrary, I suddenly stoked my body temperature up to heatwave and my body flooded. Too much information? Tough! It will be over by mid-October and I will start to become a man again. Sex in the afternoon. You can’t beat it!
Our neighbours across the road have really rekindled our thoughts about installing solar panels. Our LEA, Arun, has a group buying scheme to cut the cost. We submit our requirements to Arun – We think 12 panels + Storage Battery – and they take all residents requirements and put them out to ‘auction’. The installers bid their best price in the knowledge that they are getting a lot of business. Certainly saves us having to haggle and the installation gets LEA approval. We estimate £10,000 – £12,000 should do the job. If we can generate the largest part of our own requirements and sell some back to the Grid plus add value to our house, we think we can justify the expenditure at our ages.