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 Being of the demographic most susceptible to Covid, we had withdrawn from our Health Club and largely withdrawn from meeting people.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.