Sunday, 11th August, 2024
On this gloriously warm and sunny day which eventually reached a delightful 29C, my head is still dominated by that simple-minded, uncouth man I saw abusing a bus driver.
Imagine not being able to afford a simple bus fare. Imagine what that means for the other areas of your life. It has dominated my mind all night. The poverty, the paucity of life’s essentials and much else we think of essential but probably isn’t. If you can’t afford a bus fare, you probably can’t afford a mobile phone, a broadband connection, TV subscriptions – access to the outside world of information and knowledge – enough food to feel comfortable, enough power to feel warm in Winter and cool in Summer, the chance to travel and experience other cultures of other people. No wonder you explode at the stranger who you don’t understand and whose service you cannot even afford.
I wrote yesterday that it forced a tear from me when I reflected on it and yet, when I say to my wife, How lucky are we?, she says, We’ve worked hard, saved hard, invested well and now deserve our ‘good fortune’. and that is hard to deny but there is more to it than that. Some people would never get a Degree in a lifetime of effort. Some people are born into households where education, achievement, drive, determination are not qualities that are valued and passed on. Yes they can acquire them but they are certainly disadvantaged.
Foreign Home – 2009
At the age of 21, I left College penniless (although I could have asked for family backing), starting a new job for which I had to work a month in advance so I borrowed a month’s salary from my Bank and feeling quite poor but 40 years later after hard work (and I did earn two Degrees), saving and investment, I had two properties and felt as if I would never be unable to find my bus fare. Partly through luck and inheritance and partly through effort and intelligence, my life woud be secure. It could all have been so different. There but for the grace of Fate go I … Dear Reader.
The front of the Manchester Evening News illustrates this frighteningly well …
It’s a sunny Friday morning. In years gone by, the food bank in which the teenage boy, man, and woman sit in waiting for help would be quiet, with people choosing instead to enjoy a rare day of fine weather. But those times are over, as the food bank’s volunteers say summer days are just as busy as ever – and only getting busier as the cost-of-living crisis rages on.
How could it ever get to this? The last 14 years of Tory government, of austerity and preferential treatment for the elites have brought us to this socal collapse.
Monday, 12th August, 2024
Have you noticed how dark it is getting earlier now. The Winter is on its way. We didn’t fall below 22C/70F last night. Started off the night with air cooling to make the bedroom comfortable. Woke up at 2.30 am and I couldn’t feel my legs. Turned off the air cooler using an app on my phone and immediately started sweating. Anyway, this morning has rapidly shot up to 28C/82F as I have had to pay for a lovely weekend with a trip to the Hygienist. I hate the Hygienist with a passion. Turned out alright this morning.
Called in at Waitrose which is near the dentist and picked up their free paper on the way out. I was talking about class and good fortune yesterday. Well, you don’t get much more middle class than Waitrose. Their Holiday Heaven recipes include: Grilled Courgette & Nectarine Salad with Burrata.
I was about to scoff when I realised we cooked griddled courgette slices to eat with griddled Tuna Steaks last night for Supper. I wouldn’t particularly choose it with nectarine though and I’m not even completely sure what a burrata is. … I’ve just looked it up and I should have known it. Burrata is an Italian cow’s milk cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer casing is solid cheese, while the inside contains stracciatella and clotted cream, giving it an unusual, soft texture. It is a speciality of the Puglia region of southern Italy. Don’t say you don’t learn anything from the Blog, Dear Reader.
I was woken this morning as every morning at 5.45 am by my wifi/Alexa smart speaker. I turn the TV/Radio on downstairs in the kitchen by speaking to the remote handset. We go out to the dentist leaving two robot vacuum cleaners working upstairs and down. As I drive home, my phone receives confirmation of our next dental appointments and confirmation that the robots have complete their cleaning tasks. Why am I telling you all this, Dear Reader?
Well, 25 years ago, I was desperately trying to introduce IT & AI to Education in my school. It was in its infancy so the process was a struggle. It was important to automate data collection – like Pupil Registration/Attendance figures, to produce and store School -wide Attainment Data to be disseminated to LEA/Government and parents. Just this minimum required wired and wifi connections all over a huge campus along with hundreds of computers/Laptops/Handheld PDAs and dozens of printers. The cost was enormous.
The staff would need a platform on which to create, store, disseminate teaching materials to their classes and with increasing demands of the National Curriculum, the assessments they were making all the time. They would need interactive whiteboards to display their digital materials
All of this led to the demand to link home & school both for students and parents and for teachers and administrators. Initially, I created my own Intranet platform which took up huge amounts of my time to maintain. It was liked by the kids and some staff but many struggled to embrace it and it needed a more professional vehicle to really fly and we bought that in at what now seems such a cheap price of £50,000.
Because we were struggling to get good staff, I was working towards the teacherless classroom or one where large numbers of pupils could be supervised by one teacher/teaching assistant. I was doing it myself already. We were strugling to find people to staff the timetable and I volunteered to put 2 classes together – 60 x 15 year olds – who I taught IT in the Resource Centre freeing up a classroom and a teacher. I don’t like to brag but I relished the challenge and every single pupil passed all four GCSEs that comprised the IT GNVQ. It was fun but I wanted to devise online courses which could be accessed by students who would be automatically tested online, assessed online and their results reported on line to students, teachers and parents.
It was exciting, heady stuff and frustrating at times as all new things are. I didn’t get all the way there before I retired but that was 15 years ago. This morning, BBCR4 Today programme discussed the possibility of automatic learning with IT/AI in classrooms and fewer teachers. Almost 50 years ago, I did my Degree through TV and cassette with the Open University. Now, there’s a chance that the White Heat of Technology will have caught up with the School Sector.
Tuesday, 13th August, 2024
Another lovely Summer day. Driving up to sunny Surrey this morning. Should be fun. Setting off forAthens soon and, true to form, wild fires have broken out. We did more than 30 return trips to Greece in the car and I can’t remember a summer for years when wild fires didn’t break out. Greek media always makes it sound like the world is about to end and, somehow, it never does. We would drive back to Patras along the National Highway and see scorched grass on the roadside and think, What was that all about on TV? So we are a bit sceptical but we will see.
Certainly, the weather will be hot – very hot – at 36 – 38C / 97 – 101F but you should expect that in Athens in August. It’s the night time temepratures that are sticky and uncomfortable. Thank goodness for air conditioning.
When we first went to Athens in 1981 we thought it was the worst place we had ever seen. It was crowded, dirty, noisy, anarchic and rather Third World. We hated it and treated it as a necessary transition point on to an island rather than somewhere to enjoy in its own right.
Now, 43 years on and after making some 60 stays in the city, we absolutely love it. It is no longer Third World although it is noisy, crowded and a bit scruffy. We know where to go, how to access the services we need and what to say to get them. Of course, we are better off now and don’t worry that we will be ripped off. If anything, the boot is on the other foot. We are the negotiators.
Sifnos – 1984
Our island 40 years ago had no bank, no real supermarket, two external international lines to phone UK which were constantly breaking down or engaged. The hotels were basic and the food was too. But that was the challenge which kept us returning year after year until we owned a part of it ourselves. These photos of summer 1984 feature the long retired f/b Agios Georgos (St George Express) which was nowhere near an Express anything. It took around 6 hours to get us from Piraeus to Sifnos usually sitting on plastic chairs the whole way. Now you can do it in a couple of hours. On the right is the traffic chaos in Apollonia – the capital of the island which would be considered less than a village in UK and only filled up for about 6 weeks in the tourist season. It is much more organised now.
Lovely day today. We drove up to Surrey to see M&K before they return to our Florida home which we let them stay in. They are lovely, friendly, generous people and it is fascinating to see their development as they embrace Retirement. They had prepared a wonderful Lunch of grilled Salmon and Sushi. It was delightful to share it outside in the garden running down to the canal with boats going past in the sunshine.
Wednesday, 14th August, 2024
Warm but grey this morning. We’ve even had a bit of rain overnight which is wonderful. Our trip out yesterday reminded me how important adult others are in one’s life. In retirement, we can become too insular and being challenged in our views, talking to people who have other world and personal constructs in their heads is enjoyable and useful.
Blog Readers will know that I am obsessed with the past. For me, it is very important to understand the present and plan for the future but I am constantly pulled up sharp by meeing people who have little or no interest in the past at all and just believe going forward is important. My eldest sister is one who just shrugs off her past and isn’t interested when I ask for help in remembering family events. What amuses me is the fact that she wants to celebrate things like Birthdays and Anniversaries which are the essential graduations of the past but doesn’t seem to acknowlege that.
Yesterday, I was talking to K, a (fairly) intelligent, aging juvenile who also expresses little interest in the past and vows to just go forward until Dementia gets him. I am trying hard to understand it but failing completely. I use every trick in the book to maintain my links to my past. The Blog is just one small part. Our Accounts package is another historical record. Our Filing cabinet is stuffed full of records going back through Houses we have owned, Salary Slips we have been paid, Investments we have made, Taxes we have paid. I even keep emails and texts as historical records.
All of these snippets of the past are the drip, drip, drip of what has formed us over time. This morning, I heard an interview with a man whose father had been murdered. He could no longer speak to his Dad but had saved his voice mails and texts to access when he needed to feel contact.
I understand that completely. To touch, smell, feel a letter, a card from the past is keeping in touch across time. To re-read an email, text, social media message keeps that person alive. People go to an historical site and touch the ancient stones to make contact however vicariously with the history of that place. As usual, I have to take it one step further with an uncontrollable urge to return and touch once again what I have left behind if only for a minute.
Finally, to illustrate the point for former fellow students of mine, the accompanying pre-college photo of one of our clan was sent to me this morning. It is of a girl called Judy who died of cancer about 4 years ago – still in her 60s. There are little things one remembers but it was the sad irony about Judy that her best friend, Christine, shared with me, that will stick. Judy was religious about working out in the Gym and was furious that it was all for nought in her view. She left this world angry that she had wasted her time and money on Gym fees when she could have been enjoying herself.
It is through memory that those who have left us live on and are given the respect that so often we don’t always find time for in Life.
Thursday, 15th August, 2024
Only Thursday. It’s seemed a long week. Dropped Pauline off in Rustington for a little procedure. Seems to have gone well. Now travel preparations and future planning can go ahead. Recently, I’ve been feeling my age. Sensitive to ‘oldness’. The cancer diagnosis and treatment have definitely contributed to that but also the corollaries to hormone and radiotherapy have which have taken me much longer to didmiss than I thought. I have exercised less and eaten and drunk more – sort of Eat, Drink & be Merry reaction to threat to life. I let go my self-discipline.
Our trip to Athens will mark the end of that and I will set myself a target to regain where I was previously. Today, we are going to book the month of March away in Canary island sunshine as a target time for my efforts. It is what I need to motivate me. Pauline has found a pleasant apartment outside Adeje which will do just fine.
It has all the amenities needed for 4 weeks stay – wi-fi internet, kitchen, laundry, nice bathroom, bedroom, lounge with satellite TV, Dining Table and balcony to sit out, heated pool. It is in easy walking distance of most amenities around Siam Park and we can hire a car to go further. Can hardly believe the price – £3,134.00 for a month. It’s cheaper than our 7 nights in Athens. We have still got to buy flights but Easyjet from Gatwick are only about £200.00 each return. It will be cheaper than staying at home especially if its cold in UK.
Weather in Southern Tenerife in March averages 24C Day time / 15C Night time with 7 hours of sunshine per day and rain on only 2 days. Weather in Athens in August averages bloody hot. It will be 35C Day time / 25C Night time with around 13 hours of sunshine and no rain. At some stage you pray for a cool, overcast day but no one hears. I’ll definitely leave my umbrella at home if anyone wants it.
I have to use these sorts of incentives to motivate and focus on self improvement, on fitness and weight loss. I’ve always thought that aging was a linear process – we get less able as we get older. New research out today and reported in The Telegraph and on BBCR4 Today programme suggests we age in phases rather like growth spurts but in reverse.
When I was 13, I suddenly grew to 6 feet tall over a few months and then stopped growing completely. This new research suggests that people suddenly find they have reached a stage of aging and then stop for a while before suddenly realising they reached another stage without noticing intervals between. I have been blaming my feeling of decline on my recent illness. This regeneration project will possibly show whether it is recoverable, Dear Reader.
Friday, 16th August, 2024
Lovely, sunny and warm day. The world looks clean and fresh after overnight rain. Starting to prepare to put the garden to bed while we are away. Clothes are being washed and ironed by the Laundry Woman. Who irons shorts and tee shirts? Answer: she does. Who am I to argue. I keep out of the way in situations like this. I’m busy spending money on next year – a re-visit to Thessaloniki and March in Tenerife. Kevin has already asked for a villa large enough to provide a bedroom for him for a week.
The political scene is going to be interesting for a while now. So nice to have Labour politicians with sensible, grownup policies dominating the airways. The right wing lunatic fringe are either going through the court system, crying for their Mums or plotting to sieze Leadership of the moribund Tory Party. If they are out of power and out of luck, they pretend they are some great oracle of right wing thought who the country needs to listen to. Here’s the brainless Liz Truss trying to sound intellectual ….
…. and failing spectacularly. She also thinks America – where they don’t know how stupid she really is – might be a fertile ground for rehabilitation of her reputation. It won’t, Trumpism is on the wane. She’ll be riding the wrong wave again.
What is amusing on our political scene is that the Right, who have derided Statism in general and the Welfare State in particular, are up in arms that a cash-strapped government should make Winter Fuel payments means-tested so that they only go to those who really need it. You realise the righteous indignation is just that and nothing more.
M&K have been swapping films/TV series with us. We gave them Slow Horses from Apple TV – If you haven’t seen it, you really should. – They told us to watch Rebus, from the Detective novels created by Ian Rankin. I should have done years ago but didn’t have time.
It’s intelligent writing and I’m enjoying it. Last night, I watched Long Lost Family which I love to hate. It is so moving. If you’ve ever lost somebody, you will know immediately. The answer is to never give up. It always amazes me how many of these people didn’t know how to acess the process of search and discovery.
In Athens, at the end of a long, hot day, a reviving shower and an indulgently enjoyable supper out, we can access our Netflix account in our hotel room and relax over a bottle of wine. It is important to make it home-from-home as we indulge the Greek atmosphere. The process has been refined over many years so that we want for nothing.
Saturday, 17th August, 2024
Gorgeous day down here. Warm and gloriously sunny. This Blog is for those who don’t like to look back but only move forward and anticipate the future.
The new buds push the old leaves from the bough.
We drop our youth behind us like a boy
Throwing away his toffee-wrappers. We never see the flower,
But only the fruit in the flower; never the fruit,
But only the rot in the fruit. We look for the marriage bed
In the baby’s cradle; we look for the grave in the bed;
Not living
But rising dead.Norman Nicholson (from Complete Verse, Jonathan Cape, 1999)
In order to set up my automatic lighting ready for going away, I was monitoring the times of daylight and dark yesterday. It is really noticeable now how much shorter the day has become. Sunrise is 5.55 am and Sunset is 8.21 pm. The Autumn is coming, Dear Reader, in more senses than one. The signs have been there for a while but we are less than two weeks from September. So, that’s something to look forward to. That and Man. Utd, winning the Premiership. We can all dream and I am a real dreamer. Currently, I’m dreaming of a week’s hot sun in Athens and a month’s warm sun in the Canaries. I’m dreaming of a Labour government for the next 15 years, a Trump loss in the next few months and …. well I won’t go any further. My dreams will come true. The Future is to come.