Sunday, 31st December, 2023
The dying of the old year and the birth of a new one is an exciting time …. for young people. If you’re young and desperate to be inducted into the next stage of Life – Secondary School, University, Car Driving, Drinking Alcohol, Getting a Job, Getting Married, Buying a House – then a new year could bring that aspiration closer. When you are older, the advancement of Time is less attractive and aspirations are harder to find. We have to work at it and control our expectations.
I will be setting my goals for the new year – some I will share with you and others I won’t. I will first and foremost aim to get rid of the excess weight I’ve accumulated during the 8 months of Hormone Treatment. I will get back to my best fitness and even stretch it a bit. I will travel abroad and in UK and visit friends and family. I will continue to manage my investments and add to them on the basis that we have a future to protect.
Down here the weather is perfect – dry & bright but breezy. The old year is being blown away by the new. Up in Yorkshire floods are closing roads and my old friend John R has had to abandon his picnic in Catterick. Most wonderful of all is how warm it is. Here we are at the year’s end and no central heating being used although I went down to the beach this morning and nearly froze my face in the stiff breeze.
Going in the Gym to end the old year the way I intend to start the new. I can feel the determination surging back to improve and do better than before, to achieve things I failed to do this year. It’s coming …. See you in the New Year, Dear Reader.
Monday, 1st January, 2024
Ah, there you are. Welcome to another year of trivia. We welcomed in the New Year with quite heavy rain but this morning is reasonably bright and warm. Went down to the beach but it was so popular that we didn’t stay.
I told you about some of my resolutions for the New Year yesterday. I have others and this morning’s Times pictured one of them. Just as lunatics post images of Jesus or the prophet Mohammed that they think they can see in a bowl of custard or a cup of coffee, so Tory diehards see a face of Sunak in their toast and see it as a sign. The Brexit mug steams grubbily away and the ‘jam tomorrow’ promise sits temptingly on the side. Look at the robin of hope in the real world outside.
In the real world, I’m going back in the Gym.
Tuesday, 2nd January, 2024
Happy Tuesday. Well, we have to generate our own ‘happy’ today because it’s raining outside. I’m working on self-improvement! Diet and exercise is formally re-engaged with self determination. It is so warm down here at the moment that I’m thinking of moving back into tee shirt & shorts. Thinking.
What I can tell you is that this warm winter is definitely showing in our power readings. If you are a regular reader, you will know that I maintain a spreadsheet of our power consumption which I record at the start of a new month. Last month, we used 30% less Gas compared with the equivalent month last year and a staggering 50% less Electricity. At this rate, the suppliers are going to be paying me to stay with them. The other ritual which is performed annually is the Home Accounts print out. This year it came to a staggering 38 pages which will be committed to file in case digital copies get lost.
The South Coast has traditionally had an older and more prosperous demographic. The climate makes it more amenable to retirees. Because of that, it has always voted Tory … since 1841 when Sir Robert Peel was Prime Minister to be precise. Currently, it has two, Tory MPs who were first elected here in 1997. They have had comfortable majorities for 26 years.
Peter Bottomley has been an MP over six decades, first being elected in Woolwich West, before becoming the representative in Worthing West in 1997. He is so old that he is currently Father of the House. Many will remember his wife, Virginia Bottomley, as Secretary of State for Health under John Major in 1992. That’s how old our MP is.
His neighbouring Tory MP is Tim Loughton who blames People from Brighton coming to Shoreham and Worthing, people with university degrees who think Jeremy Corbyn is brilliant. Can you imagine educated people being a threat to an MP. Well, of course you can if you are constantly getting re-elected by pulling the wool over the eyes of the uneducated. These Tory MPs have become so blasé about their positions that they are known as absentee landlords. Loughton is an exponent of the bonkers and immoral Rwanda Plan which tells you all you need to know about him.
Often you will hear the older inhabitants around here bemoaning the new houses being built and the younger people moving in. I suppose I am older but I welcome them and particularly if they are educated, bright, lively, demanding of better services and seeing through the Tory’s paucity of provision. They are the source of regeneration and I welcome that.
Wednesday, 3rd January, 2024
Almost forgotten we ever went through 2023 by now. The new year is already the current, the now. Nice, bright and breezy but warm morning. They can be difficult days these darker, wetter, colder days – particularly for the retired. My friend in North Yorkshire was so fed up with constant rain and wind yesterday that he was watching a 1956 film, The Ten Commandments with his wife. I can’t imagine watching the film anyway but WITH YOUR WIFE? Actually, he did say, Life must get better!
I assured him it had to. He should drink the wine I sent him for Christmas and book a trip to Spain. Do not grow old! Grow Life. There is so much more to life than fairy tales. If you are a regular reader, you will know that I see all religious belief as sure sign of madness. As I grow older, I become more sure of that position. I am not looking for a fantasy insurance policy of eternal life which is why I have to get everything done while I am actually alive. As my carer constantly says, You’re a long time dead. She is a happy little soul.
I have always been happier in facts than fictions and if the two can be blended, all the better. In the Gym, I am still watching the 10 series, 88 episode, MI5 drama called Spooks. What I like about it is the fact that it is rooted in current affairs. Series 7, which was first aired in 2008, opened with an Israeli bombing of Gaza killing 80 innocent Palestinians. I was absolutely gripped by its topicality. Another Series was centred around Russian assassins seeking out and eliminating enemies of Russia in UK about the time of the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and long before Boris Berezovsky was found ‘hanged’ in Berkshire in 2013 just as his associate was found impaled on the iron fence below his apartment.
Although I like to feel centred in reality, I don’t want to go as far as this lunatic. He keeps me up to date with developments in the area where he lives and his travel but this is just going a bit too off-grid. Cold, wet, dull …. not for me. Where is the sun?
I suppose it takes all sorts. Life would be boring if we were all the same. If you can believe it, some people even go to Wales.
As I walk across the garden to start my work in the Gym, I am reminded by post through the door that it is almost 4 years since we left David Lloyd and set up our own facility. Regularly, I receive emails and flyers beseeching me to return. I looked up the cost this morning and our joint membership would be just under £3000.00 per year. We didn’t pay a great deal more than that to set up our own and we’ve already had 4 years out of it. Plus it is so convenient.
Thursday, 4th January, 2024
Drove down to the beach to buy fish. It wasn’t sunbathing weather but very warm and without wind. The tide was out and the beach was empty.
We drove on to the Fishermen’s Shop where locally caught, fresh fish is always available. They are lovely people who appreciate our loyalty.
Back just in time before the skies opened and rain poured down. Managed to catch Keir Starmer’s New Year’s speech and then get out to the Gym.
Meanwhile, Chef has been making soup, dehydrating fruit slices and making fish cakes and homemade baked beans for Supper. Really living the High Life down here!
Friday, 5th January, 2024
A cooler, brighter morning but not cold and only weakly sunny. Out early to have a blood test and then take the little diva to the Beauticians. She keeps telling me it is ‘free’ because she bought a course of treatments. How that is free is only known in her facialised head but I don’t argue … much. Between these two appointments, we had time to nip down to the beach to check the sea is still there. Beach was lonely and all the activity happening far out on the horizon.
Along the beach path are those characteristic, seaside shelters for people to sit out of the rain/wind/sun. Good idea but, they are rarely cleaned and maintained and soon begin to look shabby, dirty and uninviting. Sands and salt spray blow in from the beach and make the whole area uninviting. I wouldn’t sit in one.
I’ve had some weird relationships with people in my life and many of them long distance. I think the pandemic encouraged them more than ever. In retirement, they have increased rather than anything else but reaching out and sharing each day is so important. Did you know that relationships with friends are very important to our health. The Alzheimer’s Society’s research found:
Social isolation can greatly increase a person’s risk of dementia. Engaging in social activities helps to build up your brain’s ability to relieve stress and improve your mood.
I have made it harder by moving South but I will persist if only for my long term health. I knew there was a reason for Whatsapp. It really makes sharing the events of your life so easy. I even talk to the next door neighbours through it.
I don’t know about you. Dear Reader, but I love flowers. I love cut flowers in the house. Had a tall, fluted vase in the hall for ages and rarely find flowers tall enough to showcase it. Found some today and I love them.
I got the flowers. My Chef has gone Ninja-mad. Last week she started to test one air-fryer / pressure cooker / multi-cooker. Today, she has ordered a second one which can cook a whole chicken. Don’t ask.
Saturday, 6th January, 2024
A lovely morning after a beautiful sunset last night. A little cooler but nothing of significance. Still haven’t got the central heating on although the radiator will go on outside in the Gym today.
When you’re not practical …. and I’m nothing if not practical, it can be a nightmare finding people to do the work that inevitably crops up. As soon as we move to a new home, we try to establish a network of of tradespeople who we can call on and rely on. Even in Greece, it was an important thing to do. We have a wonderful, odd-job man for all those little things that normal men can do for themselves but my incompetence means I’m prepared to pay for.
We try to wait until we’ve got a list and then bring him in from Brighton to make the travel worth his while. My job today is to photograph all the things we want him to do and email them to him. Today I’ve got 7 smallish jobs on the list.
Meanwhile, back in the Kitchen, Chef is introducing me to Buttermilk. I knew of it but I think this is the first time I’ve tasted it. It is really just milk with lemon juice which will tenderise chicken thighs prior to air-frying coated in flour. There’s nothing quite like tender thighs. Even at 72, we can all learn new things. I love it.
It’s Saturday. A day for talking. So far I’ve spoken to Kevin, Tolley and Derek France. It’s good to talk.