Sunday, 7th April, 2024
A lovely warm and sunny morning. Gardening and walking will happen this morning and this afternoon will be Gym and football – Man.Utd. v Liverpool. It is one of the rare occasions when I want United to lose. I would really like to see Liverpool win the League and certainly not Arsenal or City.
I must wish my friend and former Digs-mate, JohnR a happy birthday. He is 75 today which makes me feel like a youth. Thank you, JohnR. The first men (boys) in an all women’s (girls) college are pictured above in our first couple of weeks in College. Don’t know how those girls got in there. We didn’t mix with them.
Put my new shaving mirror up yesterday and this morning was the real test. It was great for a shave but … goodness I’m UGLY!! It really doesn’t do anyone any favours with such close scrutiny. What it has done is illustrate how badly I’ve been shaving all this time. I must try harder.
Before I kill myself in despair, I’m going out in the sunshine to sow parsley, plant seed potatoes and then sow some flower seeds in my cold frames. The raised beds are cleaned replenished with fresh compost and ready to go as long as we get a run of dry, warm weather.
Lovely warm and sunny afternoon. Pouring with rain in Manchester. Unfortunately, the match went to a draw which was bad for both teams. At least the garden is ready to receive guests. Got to get the patio professionally cleaned and then all the pots can be planted up and enjoyed in the sunshine.
Monday, 8th April, 2024
Another week. It’s dry and warm but not terribly sunny this morning. The highlight of the day is …. the Dentist. Well, actually, the Hygienist. Hate the Hygienist! Always hurts me and I’m only little.
Life seems to be jogging along quite slowly at the moment which can be viewed in two ways. It does feel a little boring but at least time is slowing and extending in that way. I was reading an interesting article about the sculptor, Anthony Gormley, yesterday. Like me, he is 73. Like me, he is obsessed with the passage of time. Many of his works contain the word “time” in the title. His army of silent, featureless iron figures interrogate time and the relationship between humans, geology and nature over the course of our planet’s history. He is also listening to the clock ticking on his own lifetime. At 73 he is filled with a sense of urgency to get things done.
What have I got to get done, Dear Reader? Now that would be telling although some of you will know already. Today, before crying at the Dentist, I am going to achieve world-beating sowing of seeds. I’m going to grow acres of Parsley. To me, that is quite an old fashioned herb which was served at home every Friday in a sauce with fish. I had moved on to the more exotic herbs – Oregano, Dill, Thyme, Tarragon, etc of the Mediterranean. That is until I rediscovered its flavour and was immediately won back. Of course, Parsley originates in Greece where it is known as πετροσέλινον or rock celery.
The French for parsley – persil – derives from it. Actually, I’ve just found out where the washing powder Persil got its name and it is from two of the original ingredients, sodium perborate and silicate. I remember my Mother swore by it. It was a time when people believed there were a limited number of product brands which could be trusted and relied on. Now, the market is more fluid and opaque. We don’t know without research who makes these products.
Persil is a German brand of laundry detergent manufactured and marketed by Henkel around the world except in a few countries like UK where it is manufactured and marketed by Unilever.
In Greece, we would buy almost exclusively flat leaved parsley but still prefer the curly-leafed for flavour. It is very easy to grow and used to be used by farmers to mark the lines of other, crops they had sown.
Tuesday, 9th April, 2024
Not a good night made more difficult by strong winds creaking in the roof joists. In fact, put the radio on at 4.00 am and that helped me to fall asleep. It had been forecast and I had anchored down the garden furniture, etc. but that didn’t make sleeping any easier.
Didn’t realise how bad the weather had been over night until I got up at 7.00 am to be greeted by lots of national news reports on my phone from the Mail and Express and this one from the London Evening Standard mentioning our home town, Littlehampton.
They suggested that just down the coast from us, people were having to be rescued from one of those dreadful static caravan parks that seem to be popular in coastal locations. I can’t imagine living permanently in a caravan/shed like that but some seem to like it. We didn’t have any rain but there were signs of a very high tide on the coastal path this morning with shale covering the road.
Went to the dentist yesterday for my Hygienist appointment. It struck me that I haven’t had any problems with my teeth for years. In fact, the older I get, the less concerns if have, which is nice. We have Annual Dentistry Plans which provide 2 x Hygienist + 2 x Dentist appointments each year. It is impossible to find an NHS Dentist down here as it was in Surrey. We pay £500.00 per year for the two of us to have these 4 treatments and that gives us a 20% reduction on all other work.
We go to Calm & Gentle because that’s what I require at the dentist. I need a pretty girl to hold my hand and speak soothingly to me while the dentist does his work very, very gently. It works for me.
Wednesday, 10th April, 2024
Beautiful morning of blue sky and sunshine. The strong winds have gone and normality has been resumed. In fact, the strong winds subsided quickly yesterday afternoon and we had a lovely evening of sunshine and birdsong. The beach which had been the subject of some publicity the night before looked like this at 6.00 pm as if nothing had happened.
I don’t know what you feel about internet banking. I love it. About 35 years ago, I joined the Nat.West internet banking test group. In fact, I was Tester 0001. I am comfortable and fairly confident with online control of my accounts. I know there are still some people who are not. This is becoming an increasing concern for towns that are being deserted by the major banks.
We have just two left in our nearest town of Rustington and recently Nat.West announced it was closing. That will just leave Santander for people who want to Bank in branch. This is always the problem with innovation.
When I was pushing internet use in Home-School work, the complaint was that some people couldn’t afford computers and broadband connections. They were, of course, legitimate concerns but affected so few that it could not be allowed to slow the roll out of such developments and I pushed ahead with a full Home-School Intranet platform which is still flourishing.
The FROG Intranet School Learning & Management Platform has gone on to transform lives for teachers, pupils and parents. In just the same way, Internet Banking has rather left some of the old, wrinklies behind. A little old lady came into the Post Office I was at yesterday and just couldn’t manage her money transfer herself and had to be inordinately helped by the kindly sub postmistress.
Today, even though I am fairly confident with the process, I was rather nervously awaiting the arrival of £40,000.00 from a Building Society Easy Access Account which I wanted to put into two, new ISA accounts with a private bank which I invest in. The trouble is that I had to wait almost 24hrs between pressing go from one account and seeing it arrive in another. All sorts of thoughts cross one’s mind about it going missing. Not so many years ago, a friend ‘lost’ £200,000.00 in transfer from a UK bank to a foreign bank. Can you imagine it? It eventually turned up but I bet he didn’t sleep too well in the meantime.
My £40,000.00 turned up this morning and I went down to the Private Bank offices where, ironically, online business is not available. Everything has to be done through Investment Managers with paper forms and I was told that I could have an appointment but not for 10 days because demand was so high at the beginning of the new tax year. I didn’t complain but two wrinklies in front of me kicked up a fuss because they were being forced to wait. You can’t win!
Thursday, 11th April, 2024
The awful news arrived this morning and it was no less awful for being expected. Pauline’s niece, Dawn, died over night from a stomach cancer which was diagnosed only two years ago. She was just 62, lived in Lancashire, attended Oldham Bluecoat School and hadn’t even had the chance to properly enjoy any retirement.
In contrast, we have been lucky enough to have already enjoyed 15 years of comfortable retirement and it just emphasises that there is an terrible disparity across the lives of human beings. Dawn had struggled to maintain as normal a life as she could over two years of horrible treatment which inevitably led to her death in a hospice in Nelson.
At this time in 2009, we were enjoying our first couple of weeks of freedom in our Greek home. Today, 15 years ago, we had lunch in the village square of Artemonas at Manganas Taverna. I remember those days were heady, rest-of-our-lives planning sessions that we hadn’t had time to discuss while still working.
I must admit, those plans didn’t all work out quite as we expected and there have been a number of bumps on the way but to end up on the Sussex coast has been fine. New, rest-of-our-lives planning sessions are currently taking place. The move from Yorkshire/Lancashire to Surrey and then to Sussex has settled down … for now. In this week 8 years ago, we were living from garden furniture in the kitchen, NO Sky TV and only a few wardrobes to store clothes. I hadn’t even got a coffee maker at the time.
Eight years on, perhaps life is too comfortable and we need new challenges. New directions and destinations.
This morning, we are sitting round this table planning the year out. The first job is to review our flights to Thessaloniki in June. The timings have slightly changed but the aircraft itself has completely changed and, with it, our seating plan. Have to book carpark and Airport Lounge.
Friday, 12th April, 2024
Lovely day in prospect. Hope it’s good for you, Dear Reader. In fact, the forward forecast is dry for a couple of weeks with the exception of a bit of rain on Monday. Today’s timetable starts with a trip to the fish shop – sides of Salmon, Cod loins, big piece of Tuna, bags of King Prawns. Should get us through the weekend. Mowing, edging and feeding the public lawns this morning will be a nice job in the sunshine.
Been talking to my old friend, JohnR in North Yorkshire this morning. He is two years older than me and that struck me this morning. We both retired on the same day in 2009. He celebrated by going on a walking holiday in the Lake District whereas I drove to Greece. I have been saying to myself since my cancer scare that I am taking too long to get back to previous fitness despite Gym work every day. JohnR told me this morning that he would struggle to do the Lake District walk today.
He is preparing to return to South Korea to visit his son who teaches EFL there and makes films in addition. JohnR and South Korea are something of a mismatch for me. Just shows one should never be too quick to judge.
The fishmonger is just off the beach which was looking lovely today although the tide was completely out. Walkers and their dogs had far to go. We walked down to East Beach Cafe which is housed in a rather strange, modernistic structure that looks like it was designed by a committee of 1st Year Architecture students.
We drove home for coffee and jobs to get through – Pauline in the kitchen and me in the garden. Both of us have got our Gym routines to fit in to the rest of the day as well.
Saturday, 13th April, 2024
Some lovely days in prospect. Definitely shorts and tee-shirt time now until November if we live that long. Yesterday we heard that an old friend and fellow footballer had died.
Keith Lowery, who was 6 months younger than me, died last night of ….. prostate cancer. Death brings us up short. The death of someone younger is particularly poignant. To learn that he had been suffering with prostate cancer for the past few months is distinctly scary. How lucky was I to be diagnosed early?
And yet, life goes on. Doesn’t it, dear Reader. Must be positive in the the disappearing line of time. The garden is a symbol of optimism and positivity. A trip to the Garden Centre for some fresh Sage plants to supply the freezer for the rest of the year. Sage is an old, Mediterranean herb that we use a lot but isn’t very long lived so I’m planting out and sowing seeds for my own new plants as well.
The main job today is cleaning out and tidying up the garden storage pods which have become invaluable since we converted the garage into Gym & Kitchen. These huge, simple storage pods-cum-sheds just swallow up everything from lawn mowers and garden tools to pressure washer and leaf blower, packs of backup house tiles, tins of touch-up paint, tool boxes, etc.