Sunday, 17th March, 2024
Another grey, wet day began as one of mourning. Death of an old and long-loved friend was announced at 5.45 am.
I bought my bedside clock-radio-alarm almost 25 years ago in Huddersfield. It has been with me through good and bad times, through happiness and sadness and looked after me throughout. The news addict that I am, I value this service more than anything else. On automatically at 5.45 am (Why waste the day?) and off at 7.00 am when I get up.
It introduces me to, prepares me for and gets up ready for the coming day. It got me up for work in the early days and kept me up to date with Farming Today (You’d be surprised how interesting that is. Margaret Thatcher was a fan.). I am an expert on Badger Culling, Slurry Spreading, Crop Rotation and Tractor Maintenance.
Just before the Today Programme starts, there is always Tweet of the Day in which someone features the song of a different bird each morning. The Today programme has been with me since the 1960s, since the late, great Jack de Manio and Brian Redhead.
Today, of course, is St Patrick’s Day. It doesn’t mean anything to me other than it reminds me of two years ago today when we were in Midtown Manhattan, New York City just as the parade began to start its route through the city. It was an interesting week.
My clock radio has died before and this time I really though it was terminal. I’m pleased and very relieved to announce that I have managed to resurrect it once again. The news is less good of a young man from our past. It had been announced this morning that Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel has died of cancer at the age of …. 73. The silent drip, drip, drip of our time continues continuously …..
Monday, 18th March, 2024
Well into the second half of March and at least the day is warm and dry with patchy sunshine. The clocks go forward in two weeks and the world will be hurtling towards Summer. Our ‘village’ is decidedly Spring-like with flowers and blossom all around. It’s also rampant with new house developments that have enraged the longer standing village residents.
March is traditionally time for a revival of the housing market. We didn’t really see much down time. We are not NIMBYs. We are comers-in ourselves and didn’t buy for the qualities of a quaint, old village setting.
Over 2000 new homes have been built or started in the 7 years since we arrived. Above is just one, David Wilson development which is in process at the moment. When we moved here, every inch of the area in the above photo was green fields with trees and hedgerows, soon it will be completely covered in residences.
The demand for these homes is fuelled by commutability to London via the rail network and the motorways system, but is also marketed through its proximity to the coast and the Sussex Downs for walking. Sometimes it is hard to imagine that there are enough people to buy these homes within travelling distance to their work from here. If you work on an average of 3 people per household, about 6000 new people have arrived here over 7 years with at least 2000 extra cars.
The demand for new houses has driven up the prices considerably. Starting prices for ‘quality’, 2 bed first homes opens at around £360,000 and a 4 bed home will begin at £700,000. It always makes me laugh when we broke the bank 40 years ago in 1984 to buy a 4 bedroom stone built house in an acre of land in Helme for £74,000. We really thought we had arrived. Now, most people who are buying a similar house without land are paying 10 x that price before kitting it out.
Tuesday, 19th March, 2024
I’m told it’s Tuesday. It could be any day at the moment. They are all blending into each other quite monotonously. Got to do something to mix things up very soon. Go somewhere. See things. Meet people. It’s been coming for some time.
This time two years ago, I was staying in a Sporting Academy complex in Florida – using their Gym and pool, walking in the sunshine and enjoying lovely company. The IMG campus was huge.
At the weekend, while watching the build up to the 6 Nations match, a report on a member of the Welsh team moving to American sport was featured from the same IMG Academy complex in Bradenton, Florida and warm memories flooded back.
We may not go back to Florida until next year but intend to make a number of shorter trips in the next few months. Must go to France a few times soon, to the North soon and then fly to Thessaloniki in June and Athens in August. Got to start moving!
Pauline has always kept mementoes as she has moved through the timeline of her life. Things that are time or person specific, things of her Mum & Dad, of our married life and of our travels. Generally, they are not moribund items stuffed away in a box but she tries to incorporate them into her current life. When she was 21, she had a little party with her College friends in Tottenham. They were Food Science students and bought her a large, glass mixing bowl 51 years ago. She uses it almost every day even now.
In the mid 1970s, a blocked drain outside our first house in Meltham, Huddersfield was excavated. This blue jewel of of fluorite emerged from the mud. Who knows how it got there. Our house was the original, 19th century Coaching House in the grounds of the Mansion house. It certainly had centuries of history to reclaim. It reclaimed some of my memories this morning when I came upon it although I tend to collect people not things.
Wednesday, 20th March, 2024
The Spring Equinox, Dear Reader. Yet another one! The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning equal and night.
From here, the days increasingly get longer than the nights which is why clocks go forward in 10 days to make use of all that daylight. I would prefer them staying that way. Bugger Scotland. They can have their own time zone if they like.
While daylight/sunlight gets longer, inflation is coming down. Today it was announced at 3.4%. After years of making next to no income from cash savings, I am feeling so much better. Having tied money up at a loss for many years, I bought 3 year fixed-rate bonds at 6.1% last year when inflation was 9.4%, now I have more than 18 months left while lower inflation means I am making positive earnings and it is predicted to be down to 2% by winter. Because of that, I am continuing the process of investing it in ISAs to shelter it from tax. We can only make £2000 a year tax free unless it is in an ISA wrapper so I will be buying another £40,000 next month when the new tax year allows it.
Of course, prices aren’t coming down. They are just going up a little more slowly. Today, we bought the last of Sainsburys cans of Virgin Olive Oil. Only 2 years ago, we were buying this 3L can for £7.35. Today, each can was £16.10. Fortunately, we can afford to pay it but many can’t. The Spanish themselves are largely turning away from their own olive oils in favour of cheaper seed/nut oils.
Exactly 52 years ago this morning, I was regretting everything. I had sprinted across the College lawns from the Cottages to reach the student bar, affectionately know as the Wilkie, with just 30 mins to closing time at 11.00 pm. I was meeting my friend, Kevin, who had a pint of John Smith’s Bitter waiting for me. Three pints later (well we had 30 minutes), we saw something going on down in the carpark. A coach had arrived. Students were getting on it in the darkness. We learnt that they were going to do the Lyke Wake Walk. For me, after 3 pints in 30 minutes, they could have been doing naked sunbathing at midnight so when Kevin said, Come on. Let’s do it., I stupidly agreed.
Almost 12 hours later and after 40 miles of walking under the moonlight – the Lyke Wake Walk is a complete crossing of the North Yorkshire Moors – I had feet covered in blisters and very aching legs. Actually, Kevin had heard that the Marines had run the entire route and thought we should emulate them. We tried but just couldn’t sustain it. I don’t think I could walk 40 miles now.
Thursday, 21st March, 2024
Yesterday launched Summer at the start of Spring. We were warm – 18C/65F – and gorgeously sunny. The lawns were mowed. Minds turned to gardening. Well, I turned my gardener’s mind to clearing the pots and weeding the raised beds. I think she enjoyed it. My job today is forking over, aerating the soil and topping it up with fresh. Next I can book a company to come and professionally clean the surrounding patio, drive and front path so we will be ready for the season.
As a reward for her work yesterday, the gardener has ordered 5 new swimming costumes in readiness for European travel. She tells me her bikini days are over. I suspect she won’t need them in Oldham but you never know.
My friend, Kevin, is in mourning because his favourite pub is being converted into apartments. They could convert all pubs to apartments for me. I’ve offered him my choice as an alternative.
We have a plumber here this morning fitting a new shower in one of the bathrooms. We think this shower has started to lose its power because it is rarely used. Since living in Greece, we both prefer showers to baths and should rotate through the bathrooms but generally use the same one each time because it’s a bigger, walk-in one.
As the general Election looms, we are still only hearing from one, political party in our new constituency. Labour are becoming increasingly confident of winning down here for the first time in over 50 years. The sitting Conservative MP is so old he is the Father of the House of Commons. Sir Peter Bottomley is 80 this year. Time to retire! Time for a Change!
Our Labour candidate is a lively, young-ish, local doctor. Exactly the sort of character to represent a thrusting area such as this. If she can win here against the weight of history then Labour can sweep the board across the country. The Tories are jumping ship in so many places. Noticed that the candidate for Manchester Mayor has defected to the Reform Party this morning. He wouldn’t have stood a chance anyway.
Friday, 22nd March, 2024
Strange dream last night. I was 90 years old – only 17 years away. Still reasonably fit but I seemed to be talking in the wind, having a one way conversation that had lasted for years. There was nothing coming back. Wondered if it was my Blog. It was very uncomfortable.
Very warm but overcast day. At least it’s still dry. Every morning over Breakfast I am sent a news briefing from various parts of the country and parts of the world that are/have been significant to me over time. This morning there was a story about a woman being knocked down on Falinge Road in Rochdale. It wasn’t the dark, damp, chilly night that struck me. It wasn’t the 42 year old drug-driver who struck the elderly woman. What hit me hardest was that we were told the woman was 72! Elderly woman aged 72!!! What is happening?? We’ll all be living on canal boats at this rate. At least we won’t get run down.
These things are beginning to get to me more and more. This week, I decided I could be a WASPI woman. Think of all the compensation. My Housekeeper missed out on 15 months state pension because of the unannounced change. That could amount to more that 20p in compensation. Actually, the Right Wing Press is arguing that Wealthy ‘WASPIs should be barred from compensation. Just think, elderly woman died without compensation. I don’t know which is worse.
Saturday, 23rd March, 2024
After a clear night and the garden illuminated by a nearly full moon, the day has opened to a glorious morning. Blue sky, strong sunshine, feeling of vibrant life and possibilities. I’m going out to buy …. a new garden brush! Woohoo!!
I have to wish P&C a happy anniversary. It is 67 years ago today that Pauline’s sister got married. Pauline, the mistake, was just 5 years old. This is the happy couple on Oldham Wakes holiday in Blackpool three months after their wedding in 1957.
I bought a new garden brush to sweep away the winter detritus from the garden and then walked across the beach as the sea was rushing in to clean the pebbles once again.
Pauline had ordered 5 swim suits and a couple of dresses for the holidays in the sun. Today, we returned 3 of the swim suits and one of the dresses and the company took them back at their expense although I suppose it was factored into the price. I was quite surprised that she went for an ethnic, ‘Aztec’ design which you might expect Pocahontas to wear but she looks nice in it and it is so cheap it won’t matter if sun cream stains it.
We’ve got almost 12 weeks until we do a hot sun trip so I suspect there will be plenty more where that came from. It won’t be quite the same in France where anything goes. I am currently looking at just getting in the car and driving – perhaps booking ahead by one night at a time. Route: Coquelles, Wimereux, Boulogne, Le Touquet, Saint Valery, Dieppe, Le Havre, Saint Malo, Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux … and relax. I definitely need to move and explore, to find new places and people, to revisit and rejoin places and people from the past. I intend to do all 0f those things this year.
For me the changing seasons mean travelling and gardening. For my Housekeeper. they mean ingredients and menus. As in Greece so it is in UK. Easter means Roast Lamb. We virtually never eat lamb throughout the year but at Easter it is obligatory. Of course, we recognise that it is a religious thing – The Lamb of God – in which we are not invested. However, the tradition is fun to observe. In Greece, it would be a whole lamb spit roast outside in the sunshine. Here, it is a leg of lamb from Waitrose roasted with home grown rosemary and mint.