Week 823

Sunday, 29th September, 2024

The Eight Hundreth and Twenty Third week of this online Diary begins as the last few days of September 2024 end under grey skies. It is dry and warm but not promising. The Day begins and ends with Data. All sorts of Data. It appeals to me. Vital statistics are important.

The morning starts with shaving. I monitor it on my smartphone app which tells me how well I’ve done. Last week I managed 95% performance so that is my target to beat this week. Step on the scales. They are really going well in the right direction. I am delighted by my efforts. I have lost 40% of my target and I intend to continue until June next year. Low food intake. No alcohol (33 days now) and increasing exercise. It is beginning to feel less painful and more enjoyable. I have a spreadsheet to record all these things.

First thing after Breakfast is to go down to the Beach for a walk. It is warm but there is a strong breeze off the sea. Lots of walkers are dressed in coats. I get some surprised looks as I stride down the promenade in tee shirt and shorts. Actually, it was lovely if invigorating.

The new car will be delivered tomorrow afternoon. One of the joys of a new car is learning all the new elements of its functions. I’ve been reviewing them in advance and I’ve actually learnt something about my existing car that I haven’t known for two years. I am a little embarrassed about it. Always wondered what those three little lines were on the door handles.

Our last two cars have had keyless entry. As long as the key is in my pocket, the doors open as soon as I touch them. The boot opens as soon as I swing my foot underneath so I can open it while holding bags of shopping. Reading about the new car, I find that those three little lines on the door handles are where the car can be locked remotely by just placing my finger on them as long as the key is in my pocket …. and not in the car. In the new car it is possible to remotely heat the car, start the car and open all the windows and doors with one click.

Today is clearing out the interior – Sunglasses, Driving Glasses, Reading Glasses, Spare Change for meters, Tissues, Shopping Bags, etc.. I’ve also got to clear the Destinations from the sat.nav. which includes our Home address and lots of other personal details, phone numbers, addresses, etc. I do this every couple of years and every time I have to feel my way back through it. Anyway, now done. Jobs cleared in time for Man.Utd. v Spurs.

Back on the scales before bed. And off to dream of many things but, particularly, being thin.

Monday, 30th September, 2024

Out with the old. Enjoy the last day of September, 2024, Dear Reader. It’s been raining here for 12 hours solid. Standing water everywhere. Reminds me of that famous quote from an early 20th century American humourist when he visited Venice in the 1930s. He sent a telegram to his agent saying:

Just arrived in Venice.
Find all streets flooded.
Please advise.

Robert Benchley

Exercise will be in the Gym today. But first Breakfast. Every day the same for me. Entirely liquid. Two oranges freshly squeezed by Chef. Each year, I consume 730 large oranges each year. They mainly come from Spain and Florida but, recently, they are from South Africa and are not particularly wonderful in sweetness or juice content.

There was an interesting article in the The Sunday Times yesterday that quoted the company who sell Tropicana. The justify price rises by saying that the price of oranges had risen by 400% over the past two years because the biggest source of oranges was Florida and the USA has suffered a catastrophic citrus blight which had massively reduced the crop.

I was reminded of the problem we had in Greece. After a few years of our lemon trees fruiting well, suddenly the leaves started turning black as if covered in soot and very little blossom was followed by very few fruit. When we asked islanders, we were told that this aphid blight was covering the island. We were advised to spray the trees each Autumn but it still hadn’t cleared up before we sold. A fellow Englishman with a house on Corfu has been reporting the same problems since then ….. until this Spring when his trees are fruiting heavily again.

The new car will be delivered in mid-afternoon. I was reminded of something else which is featured on the existing and new models which I never take advantage of. Paddles behind the steering wheel which can be used for graduated deceleration. Using the deceleration paddle selector situated on the steering wheel, you can sequentially shift through four stages of deceleration but, why would you want to? I let the car largely drive itself by setting Adaptive Cruise Control which drives for me according the traffic around.

The new model takes driving lights one step forward by providing Active Cornering Lights which turn the headlights from straight ahead to round the corner as you turn the wheel and Adaptive Beam Control which automatically switches fromfull to dipped and back according to approaching traffic. The new model also features the long overdue Headlight Auto Turn Off which takes care of that job instead of just giving a warning sound when you get out of the car.

The new car has come with so many changes and a 350 page handbo0k that I will be up all night preparing to drive it tomorrow. What fun!

Tuesday, 1st October, 2024

Welcome to October 2024, Dear Reader. Let’s hope it will be good for us all. Happy meetings, revisitings, reconcilliations. New beginnings. More than anything else, I expect to enter December a whole lot lighter and fitter.

Nice morning to go out in my new car for a walk by the sea. I’m getting to grips with the new controls. I must admit, I’ve already given up with the huge Owners’ Guide and I’ve been watching video clips on YouTube. They are much more accessible and informative.

I’ve already sorted out the reversing camera’s guidelines and the Adaptive Cruise Control. Our smartphones have been linked and Android Auto is set up for use. Going out now to put the instructions into action.

Before I do, I’ve had real fun learning how to use the app on my smartphone to control the car remotely. It will lock and unlock the doors, open and close each window separately along with the sunroof. It will prestart the heating, screen de-icing, tell me how many miles I’ve got in the tank, how many miles I have on the clock, and set my sat nav up for my coming journey. It has a perfectly good sat. nav. but I am enjoying putting Google Maps through it instead. It allows me to park, set my location and it will guide me back to my car later.

It allows me to set a geo-fence security perimiter beyond which I will be immediately alerted. So, if someone moved it/stole it, the car would not only alert me but would track where they had taken it. The car is permanently linked to Honda Assist all over UK and throughout Europe so they can help me through any problems. Often, they will know I have a problem before I do but, if in the unlikely chance I have a breakdown, my car will call for assistance wherever I am.

Absolutely lovely and warm down at the beach. People much older than me were swimming and wind surfing as the tide rolled in. Did a good walk and then drove home to laugh at the Conservatives in their Party Conference in Birmingham. They haven’t learnt a single thing from their recent demolition.

Wednesday, 2nd October, 2024

Warm but rather overcast today. Up early to get my walk done before it rains. Last night, it was forecast for mid day today. Over Breakfast, I noticed all talk of rain had gone. Unfortunately, it never rains but it pours and with strong winds forecast for later next week, we’ve found that one of our fence posts is rotten at the base. Sounds trivial but it impacts on our neighbours and on the electrics installed on our side.

The fence man can’t come until next week and our electrician has said he will move the electrics before the strengthener is installed. I could do without it but Life constantly gets in the way, doesn’t it Dear Reader.

Lovely walk in warm air by the sea. Been there every day for just over a month now. It is followed by a Gym session and it is working. I am definitely feeling fitter and the weight is falling away faster than I expected.

For the last 5 years, I have been contributing to a Health Study led by Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London. It began with Covid but has spread over time to general health.

I don’t go mad about it but I do follow recommendations generally and I do contribute my own data every morning via my smartphone as I drink my fresh orange juice and freshly ground coffee. Pleased to see this report in the Daily Telegraph this morning. My wife drinks nothing but water. Can you imagine that? Hot (90F) water for breakfast and cold water with Supper. Nightmare!

Thursday, 3rd October, 2024

Glorious morning of warm sunshine and blue skies. Unfortunately, it is shopping morning and I am driving to 6 different shops. At least it gives me more time to learn about the new car and get to know its facilities.

There is plenty just on the Infotainment screen to get my teeth into but just simple things like the bonnet no longer relies on one of those flimsy iron support rods anymore. It goes up slickly on side hinges. Lovely.

First this morning to Sainsburys and then Aldi and Tesco. Each one has specific items that my Housekeeper finds superior to others. On to Next to collect more clothes orders and, finally, down to the Fish supplier by the beach for more things to put in the freezer. Each time I stop, I enter destinations into the sat.nav. Happiness.

THe big highlight of the day is a trip to our surgery for a combined Flu/Covid vaccine. All but one of our vaccines have been Moderna and this combined one will be the same. It will be interesting how we react to it. Last time I ached a bit and felt a bit more lethargic for a couple of days. Pauline had quite an extreme reaction with heart flutter for a couple of days and raised blood pressure for some weeks afterwards. She is justifiably rather nervous this time and has been taking and recording her blood pressure for a few days to compare with readings after the event.

Friday, 4th October, 2024

Little cooler over night but a gorgeous morning. Down at the beach in the sunshine, the council were delivering and installing new beach huts – basically, they are colourful sheds with no water or electricity or furnishings. They are garden sheds painted bright colours.

The council then sell them off like Council Houses. I don’t know how much you’d pay for a shed on the beach but they are currently selling for £29,000.00. I can’t imagine who pays it but you do see some old Brexit voters, stuck in the 1950s, with their teapot, tea cosy and chintzy cups on tea trays, sitting on deckchairs proudly outside their beach shed.

In the 1950s, my family would go to the East Coast – upmarket Sutton-on-Sea not chavvy Mablethorpe – and rent a house for a fortnight along with a Beach Chalet as it had to be called in middle class speak. Not a shed. In there we would shelter from the rain, eat our picnic sandwiches, chage for swimming – if we could face it – and dry off out of the biting East Coast wind. A small, Calor-Gaz ring would boil water for hot tea to revive the feeling in our fingers numbed by the icy, British weather. It would also store our Deck Chairs and Windbreak – the essentials of a gritty holiday.

Through others we understand ourselves. These three reprobates were contemporaries of mine at Training College 1969 – 72. I always wonder what their lives have been like over the past 50+ years. It excites, fascintes and frightens me.

Got to force myself into the Gym now because, as usual, I am feeling a little lethargy in response to yesterday’s jabs. They had to be done but the Covid one always makes me tired and the Flu one gives me a sore throat. It’s a price worth paying but I don’t look forward to it. However, I am so pleased with my fitness gain and my weight loss that I will keep fighting on. No cause is ever truly lost, is it Dear Reader …. until we’re dead ….. and that’s a long way off.

Saturday, 5th October, 2024

Gorgeous morning for a walk and for a birthday. Out early and down to the beach where the world was beginning to stir with dog walking and fun running, children screaming as they ran in and out of the enveloping waves of the incoming tide and the physically challenged just sitting in the warmth of the sunshine.

There is a little edge to the breeze off the sea and definitely a sense of Autumn. Today is Pauline’s birthday so I am on duty. It is tradition that I take her official birthday photograph and so I did this morning. I think one would be hard pushed to say she was 73. She is known as Peter Pan among her friends. She doesn’t weigh much more than she did when we got married and she really hasn’t got many signs of aging. Her hair isn’t going grey and although she wouldn’t agree, she has very few wrinkles. Her Mum lived to 96 and there seems a very good chance she will emulate her.

I am cooking Supper today. If all goes well, I will be serving:

King Praws served on a bed of Endive Leaves with Aioli

Honey & Dijon Mustard glazed Roast Salmon
Roast Cherry Tomatoes, Shallots and Chanterelle Mushrooms

Roasted Figs with Honey & Yoghurt

I am a little nervous about getting it right … particularly because I want to watch the football.

Some clever little innovations are still revealing themselves in the new car. Today, I realised that the windscreen washer doesnt spray up from nozzles on the bonnett. It is delivered straight out of the windscreen wipers meaning less is needed.

When you press the car’s brake pedal and come to a stop, the (electronic) handbrake is automatically applied and released as soon as you depress the accelerator. In the previous car, we had to deliberately choose it by pressing a button. Simple improvement but makes such sense.