Week 812

Sunday, 14th July, 2024

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.

Vladimir Lenin

The last 7 days feel a bit like that. A new Labour Government, Trump gets shot, England (may) win a football championship. Before you know it, the sun will come out in the North of England and the rain in Wales will turn to drizzle. The sun is certainly out here again this morning. Clear, blue sky and warm sunshine. It’s going to be a nice day. Come on down, Dear Reader.

Exactly a decade ago yesterday, I was sitting in a hotel room of a Patras hotel on the Greek Peloponnese watching Germany win the World Cup. Time for a change, to coin a phrase. The old men’s Whatsapp group is full of over confident optimism. I must admit that I am naturally pessimistic and I’m unlikely to change now.

You know, Dear Reader, that I am normally far too sophisticated to drink beer. Well, I am going to make an exception tonight. In fact, last time I was in France, I bought some just in case. Can you believe it? What on earth am I going to do with 40 bottles of French beer?

Monday, 15th July, 2024

The world is grey this morning. Warm but overcast. The men in my Whatsapp group are Depressed/Gloomy/Philosophical this morning. They sent me this summary of their feelings.

It really wasn’t as important to me as a Labour victory or a Trump defeat. That seems like a 1-1 draw in the hard light of day. The War of Trump’s Ear may have swung the balance but we’ll see.

I must admit that I’m not big on Environmentalism per se. I am not going to live more than 30 more years. I have no children. Other people can do what they see fit but I still think human ingenuity will solve the problems without having to turn back our technologically developmental clocks. We shouldn’t have to limit our travel. We shouldn’t have to cut back on heating or cooling, on washing or drying. We need to find solutions that enable us to do all those things.

However, I’m entirely behind the march of progress and harnessing the natural elements, sun, wind and sea to produce power. Ultimately, after we have gone, future generations will have unlimited and largely ‘free’ power released by atomic fission but, until then, we really should use these alternatives.

We have gone over the possibilities and economic viability of installing solar panels on our roof but, although we get enough sun to justify it, the cost of installation makes the economics barely worth it. If a Labour government want to persuade us with big grants, that would be enough to tip the balance. They are also installing fields full of solar panels across the country which will be enough to generate 65% of our solar energy for the whole country. The Tories had refused to sign off on these plans for fear of upsetting Tory, Shire voters but still blamed reliance on Russian oil for the rise in costs. This is a workaround the works all round.

All will be announced in the King’s Speech to Parliament on Thursday where Labour’s Legislative Programme will be announced. Looking forward to it. What I’m not going to do is trust the weather forecast. We were told it would rain all day. We had a few minutes of light rain and then dry for the rest of the day. How can we plan? Who pays these people?

Actually, the day has turned out to be very hot and humid day and has ended in darkness and a cloudburst. I won’t need to water for a week after the skies have opened and dumped gallons on every square inch.

Tuesday, 16th July, 2024

For most of my adult life, I have seen T.S. Elliot as speaking for me. He wrote so many lines of poetry which fit my life perfectly.

Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.

T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets 3: The Dry Salvages

I’m not sure Elliot would be writing these lines this year. Yesterday, St Swithin’s Day, featured rain and some more rain. If you believe in ancient, ecclesiastical proverbs, which I don’t, you’re going to need an umbrella until August 24th especially if you live in the North and Wales. Thank goodness I’m flying to Athens where the daytime temperature will not fall below 38C/101F for the next two weeks at least.

Water means a whole new thing in this situation. In the early days, our island ran dry in the summer and water ships arrived to replenish tanks. Now they have a de-salination plant and we had our own well.

I went to Burton on Trent Grammar School which was founded in the 16th Century. I followed my Father who was there in the 1920s – 30s and my cousin, David Pritchard, who had just left as I arrived in 1962. A number of the teachers mentioned there still remembered Dad – Frank Tusky Read and Major Dai Taffy Davies. They both taught me as well although I definitely didn’t join the cadets.

It is incredible to understand, however, that this photograph was taken only 13 years after World War 2 ended and that explains the military focus. My total sex education at school was a 15 mins film of Major Jo Grimond (later Liberal Leader) with a lecture to army cadets about avoiding venereal disease. I could have done with more effective advice but then it all feels so, so far away. Anyway, David is 80 today and we wish him a very happy birthday.

Wednesday, 17th July, 2024

Going to be a good day. A lovely sunny and warm day. A day for the King’s Speech setting out the new Labour Government’s legislative agenda for the coming months.

I’m looking forward to poor people not subsidising well-off people by putting VAT on their school fees. I’m looking forward to the returning of Workers’ Rights, to the instigation of GB Energy,  a new state-owned energy company with increased renewable generation, to Rail Nationalisation, to greater Devolution of powers to regional Mayors, to the start of the dismantling of the House of Lords and much more. Whoever wins US election, Britain will change for the better.

Time is a strange thing, isn’t it, Dear Reader. While I was looking for a school photo of my ancient relative, David Pritchard, I stumbled across this photo from 1930. The central figure at the back leapt out at me. It is my Dad – Eric Richard Sanders 1915 – 1965. – when he was aged 16 and in his final year at Grammar School. It took my breath away. (Click on the photo to enlarge it.) Look how ‘correctly’ he stands, upright and determined to be his best. Sloppy, old man that I am, I almost shed a tear. It reminded me of me.

We try to fight off aging, don’t we Dear Reader, and some of us are successful and others less so. Here is my photo in the same school in 1967 as I became a Prefect in the Lower V1 with my Rugby 1st Team colours on my breast pocket proudly displayed. Just 37 years between us but Dad was already dead. Time is so cruel. It separates us unnecessarily. It isolates us harshly. It crushes us needlessly.  

When I’m out – in the supermarket watching an old woman bent over a shopping trolley as a walking aid, walking in the neighbourhood as I pass a shuffling, old man – I always want to know how their age compares with mine. I often muse that retired people should wear their ages on their backs for all of us to compare. We might consider ourselves old. Born halfway through the century and in our 70s but do you know the age of this old lady? I couldn’t guess it. Linda Bassett, star of Call the Midwife and born in 1950. Do we look that old? Do we just kid ourselves we don’t? Is it all in the genes or the presentation?

Shocked by these thoughts, I feel compelled to try harder. To get fitter. My wife tells me that we don’t look 73. She certainly doesn’t. She could easily pass for 10 years younger even though she worries about her looks constantly. Perhaps that is the answer. She has always worried about it. I know. It has cost me a fortune in face cream, body cream …..

Thursday, 18th July, 2024

Hot, sunny and quite humid today. Strange day. We went to do our weekly Sainsbury’s shop. The roads were silent. The supermarket was empty. It was almost like those Sci-Fi movies where the world has been visited by some lethal bug and only a few people have survived …

Europe generally and Greece (104F) in particular are entering their third heatwave of the summer. We even hit 82F today and there is hotter to come tomorrow. Really enjoyable feeling as the day wore on although exercise in the Gym was quite sweaty this afternoon.

Lovely to see the enthusiasm of Andy Burnham in interview yesterday as he reacted to the Labour Legislative programme set out in the King’s Speech which included devolution of additional powers and responsibilities to Mayors and local areas. Of course, one of these responsibilities will be to push the house building programmed ahead. More than 10,000 new homes a year every year for the next 5 years under the Places for Everyone plan plus vastly improved transport links including extension of the tram service.

Of course, Andy Burnham is just one of an increasing number of mainly Labour executive mayors who will be now charged with levelling up because it cannot be a top-down process. It had to be ground roots up like all natural growth. Great to see Starmer addressing European Leaders this morning at Blenheim Palace – birthplace of Churchill – and talking about closer union and increased co-operation.

We retired in 2009 and I always worried about the natural erosion of the value of pensions over time. Although our (gold plated says The Telegraph) Pensions are automatically inflation proofed, usually people feel another sort of erosion by the increase in earnings which, over time, exceed inflation and make pensioners feel relatively less well off.

As this graph starkly illustrates, we could not have retired at a more fortunate time, economically speaking. Since 2010, Teachers’ Pay has declined by 9% (inflation adjusted) while Teachers’ Pensions have increased by 20%. There are reasons to be cheerful, Dear Reader. Things can only get better and they will.

Friday, 19th July, 2024

Another Bikini Day. I’ve got mine on – just. At 9.00 am, the temperature is 23F/75F and the hottest time of the day down here is around 3.00 pm. I watered the garden yesterday in preparation. A couple of hours lawn mowing this morning if I can cope.

I can honestly say, I’ve never had my hair ‘Done’. I have it trimmed occasionally by my wife but it is a minimal performance apart from me complaining that it takes too long. I don’t like sitting still under a hairdresser’s cape. Pauline has her hair ‘Done’ but even there, it is moderate and natural. Her hair is very ‘fine’ and only needs trimming and shaping itself. She has never had it coloured, permed, rollered, or anything artificial.

I was reminded of this today by an article extolling the virtues of the ‘Big Hair’ of former MP Penny Mordaunt which is apparently achieved by a blow dry. I thought that was a sexual act but I now know it is done to your head. It makes the hair stand out and look bigger than it really is and it accentuates an appearance of strength and power. Of course, the adoring article was in a Right Wing newspaper which is struggling to stay relevant. Look at what the body language in this photograph is attempting to say. Mordaunt on the Right jabbing a finger aggressively towards her opponent as she dresses in padded shouldered power jacket and Big Hair.

Of course, Mordaunt lost her seat. Lots of time on her hands now to cultivate even bigger hair. Her opponent on the Left is Angela Rayner, a Northern girl who grew up in poverty on a council estate with a bi-polar mother. When she was young, she didn’t have books in the house. Her mother could not read or write. And here she is, Deputy Prime Minister. You only have to look at her body language leaning back, open hand and no ‘Big Hair’ – total contrast to her aggressive loser. I have heard people denigrate her for her Northern voice. Mistake. She doesn’t need to make herself look strong because she is strong. Her strength was forged in struggles of her upbringing. Moral of today’s Blog: Don’t go for BIG Hair, Dear Reader.

Cook has just picked another Kilo of Green Beans this morning. Love Green Beans and they are so good for me.

This week I’ve had a major problem with my Desktop computer. Computers have been a natural extension of my consciousness for more than 30 years and are indispensable to my way of life. It is amazing how shaky it can make me feel when that is threatened as it was a few days ago. Fortunately, I managed to solve my problem which had been caused by an automatic update over night but, this morning, a global MS Windows glitch has been reported which we are told was also probably caused by a badly checked system update. In this event it is affecting global systems which use the MS Windows platform – airports, hospitals, large worldwide corporations, etc. Lots of people around the world are feel quite shaky this morning.

Saturday, 20th July, 2024

The radio woke me this morning at 5.45 am to the story of a woman whose two, grown-up daughters were murdered in a local park. There is something about that time in the morning that I feel most receptive and most emotionally vulnerable and the story, which I was familiar with from the past, evoked emotion in me which I didn’t expect in my waking moments.

We don’t actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.
T. S. Elliot

In talking about it, the girls’ Mother was just making sure that their appalling death didn’t go unnoticed, wasn’t disappearing without trace but remains relevant to today.

I have always been fascinated by bereavement and loss. They are different things but evoke similar responses. Separation through distance or time are no less painful. People who have been married for a long time, for example, find it hard to imagine how they would cope alone. People who are separated by time and space, for whatever reason, long to reach out and touch. Often, one way they can do that is vicariously through physical objects from that connection.

When Pauline went to College in 1970, her Mother, who had no money, scraped together what was needed to make sure her daughter had what they thought was required for her next step. She bought her a lovely trunk – the biggest and best one from a shop on Yorkshire Street in Oldham – for her things to be stored away at the College hall of residence in London. Pauline never forgets the sacrifices her Mother made for her and the trunk came with us everywhere we went to connect her to her Mum. Girls are good like that.

It even came to Greece with us but that was its last journey. We couldn’t fit it in the car when we drove home for the last time. Now some Greek is enjoying it but we have the memories just as we do of the Settle or Pew that I bought Pauline for her 30th birthday from an Antique Shop in Delph. It had come, originally, from Oldham Town Hall so was intimately connected with our lives. The Greek island of Sifnos is the final resting place of a piece of furniture made for Oldham – quite fitting really. That single piece of furniture has seen so much history and quite a lot of it was mine.

I am writing this at 11.30 am and, at this time 7 years ago, I was standing in a Square in the Tuscan city of Lucca. It is the most beautiful place and features one of my ‘heroes’, Giacomo Puccini. We were driving around Tuscany and had stopped for a few days here. It was 7 years ago but it feels like a life time ago and yesterday all wrapped into one. The thing about this memory, though, is that I can go back there any time I want and touch it again. The agonisingly painful thing is that there are others we can never revisit.