Sunday, 29th December, 2024
A grey and surprisingly cold morning. We were half the temepratures in Manchester & Leeds this morning. Still, I was brave and went out for an early walk by the sea. In the dampness of very low cloud, we were met by an untidy gaggle of Mods on Scooters. It was like a time warp apart from they were all 70 yr olds tying to recreate the 1960s. They were all wearing Parkas. If you know what they are, you are old, Dear Reader.
They were the only bright but tawdry sight on this grey day at the seaside. However, the walk was chance to talk over plans for the new year and travel. Originally, we intended to spend a month driving in France but that has now changed. We are going to rethink a Spanish drive instead as we had wanted to do last year.
Portsmouth is not far away from us so we will go Portsmouth – Bilbao and then drive across Spain to Valencia region via Zaragoza. It’s quite a long sailing time. On the way out, it involves 2 nights on board but only one in return. When I was young, I might have settled for a reclining seat but not now. It has to be a comfortable cabin.
They only have 4-berth cabins even for 2 people so there is plenty of room. With a window and a TV, the cabin + car is £1140.00 return which compares quite well with the ferry we used to take down the Adriatic to Greece a decade ago.
Arriving in Bilbao at 8.00 am, I will then to a drive across Spain to Zaragoza (3hrs). Stay there one night and drive on to Valencia (3hrs). I’m looking for a property for 3 weeks by the sea before retracing our steps to Bilbao. Might be nice to spend a day there exploring before the ferry home.
I’m not bothered if the property has a pool if we are near to the beach. It has to have:
- Outdoor Space / big Balcony
- Good Wi-Fi
- Air Con.
- Washing Machine
- Equipped Kitchen
- TV
- Parking
- Access to Supermakets & Restaurants
Monday, 30th December, 2024
Exactly 46 years ago today, we got married in West Yorkshire. It was in the middle of a blizzard across the Pennines. We married in Huddersfield Registry Office but had a blessing in the local church just to satisfy my mother. Lots of lovely people came. It was an enjoyable, party day.
It hadn’t started well when we got up to find the cold water tank in the loft of our old, stone coaching house had frozen over and then defrosted quickly with the central heating and poured through the loft door on to the stairs carpet. Really kind people who ran a carpet cleaning company immediately came round, fixed the tank and cleaned and dried out the stairs carpet in the morning before we left for the ceremony. Everything, ultimately, went well.
Last night, as we reminisced about that day, the lights went out. Pauline had just put on the dishwasher. After going to the fusebox, we realised the heating element in the 8 year old dishwasher had triggered the problem and was no longer working. It had been in the new kitchen when we bought the house so it’s done well.
This morning, we are spending our wedding anniversary ordering a new dishwasher and asking for an urgent delivery and fitting. Can you imagine having to wash dishes by hand? It will be just £499.00 for a new one but when you add delivery, integrated fitting, removal of packaging and the old machine plus 5 years full replacement cover, it will cost exactly £700.00. What really sells it to me is the ability to control it over WiFi and using Alexa voice commands. That’s progress!
Went to look at the dishwasher model at Curry’s. Told them the story and they knocked £50.00 off so all good …. until they told us it wouldn’t be delivered until Jan. 9th. Who can wash up by hand for 10 days? The other downside was that my Housekeeper’s eyes spotted a new carpet cleaner which she’d been secretly admiring for a few days apparently. That did add another £180.00 to the total but …. I made it an anniversary present so that’s alright then.
After all that spending, we went for a relaxing walk by the beach. It was 10C/50F but felt colder with the breeze off the sea. Even so, there were families with picnic baskets on the beach and kids with bare legs splashing around in the lapping waves. Why don’t kids feel the cold? – no sense I suppose. I was desperate to get home for a hot cup of coffee.
Lovely celebratory meal of grilled Halibut Steaks, Stuffed Mushrooms and Roast Cherry Tomatoes accompanied by Alcohol-free Prosecco. Felt quite drunk after two glasses of that.
Tuesday, 31st December, 2024
The year is going out with a customary mild but grey day. Been out for an early hour’s walk to get the day going and because Amazon are delivering a parcel at lunchtime. Walking always seems to facilitate thought and conversation. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. Often it is the time for idle chat but there are occasions when we store up difficult conversations for the open air. Today, we talked over travel plans and reviewed whether we are making sensible decisions before it is committed.
I talk in my head constantly. It is like an inner monologue in which I discuss my thoughts and feelings with people who I have known but are only present in my head. This morning I read an article in a newspaper about exactly that. The writer also has an inner monologue and thought everyone did. I, on the other hand, always thought that I was odd. Actually, my head is the space for dialogue between me and past places, people and events I have experienced. It is a place for celebration and regret. I’m quite excited to find there are other people like me. What is scary is to think that some people have nothing going on in their head a lot of the time.
I used to have long debates/arguments with my mother for years after she had died. I talk to friends and acquaintances from the past all the time whether I still talk to them in real life or not. I visit places from my past in my head although the digital revolution has made realtime dialogue with distant people and places so much easier now.
This morning I have spent some time in: Kamares, Sifnos, Socrates Square, Thessaloniki and outside the Parliament Building, Athens in Greece, outside the Duomo Milan and on the Rialto Bridge, Venice in Italy, looking at the New York skyline from Fifth Avenue in the US and near Brighton Beach and Blackpool sea front in UK. All of these places I have visited in real time via live webcams. These photos are snatched live this morning. At the same time, I have been chatting to distant friends online.
The article reports a large study completed by a psychology professor at the University of Nevada concludes that:
Most people have an inner voice roughly 25% of the time. What that means, he says, is that some people never have words going on, and a few people have words going on all the time, and a lot of people have words going on some of the time.
However, our brains are miraculous and extremely weird things, and everyone has a different way of processing the world. Some people just process in pictures.
Can you imagine having to process complex concepts or even emotions only graphically? I can’t. Words are so important with their deftness of meaning and intricacy of history.
Wednesday, 1st January, 2025
Happy New Year to all my readers. Every year I say it …. to you and myself. Can you believe yet another year gone? This year, I’m going to say, Can you believe yet another new year of opportunity? That is how I am going to approach it. There are things I have put off or others have put off for me that I am determined to achieve this year. It will happen is the way I start the new year. People, places, reconnections are the order of 2025!
This year, we will be 74. It will happen. You see, it’s easy. Last night I wished 42 people Happy New Year by Whatsapp and Text. Almost everyone replied last night including our gorgeous, slightly drunken neighbours. A few didn’t manage it until this morning but that’s fine. The new year will be one of reconnections.
While I was at home drinking alcohol-free Prosecco (surprisingly nice … if you grit your teeth), I received a lovely photo from M&K on the piste in Chamonix as a sharp contrast to their Florida home. They have always loved skiing. Pauline & I can’t see why. We’ve seen enough snow to last us a lifetime. But, when you’re young anything is possible. Mind you, they will be 60 this year and I had already walked my 7 miles and done 90 mins in the Gym.
I heard from my sister, Jane, at 3.00 am with this picture from Horseguards Hotel where she had a good view of the firework display on the Thames. She obviously enjoyed herself which is the main thing but I think I got a better view on TV. At least it was dry and warm last night for city revellers.
I heard from another sister, Cathy, who told me she hasn’t been well for the past three weeks, unable to eat and lost a lot of weight. Feeling better now, they have gone off to a Spa Hotel in Hastings to see in the new year. I hope she’s restoring her health by eating lots of Breakfasts. Hastings is an interersting place that we considered buying a house in originally.
Heard about the death of the DJ, Johnnie Walker at the age of 79. It does seem such a young age now. Just 5 years away for us. He was one of those I lobbied the Wilson government about in the late 1960s as they tried to abollish Pirate radio stations in favour of Statist ones like the BBC as I saw it then. Radio Caroline and Radio London blared out of an old sterogram that Bob bought in a Jumble Sale. I wasn’t having a government controlling me!!!
And so it goes on – rebellion and anarchy in our 70s. That is what life is about. Taking risks, Dear Reader. We must do it! My Housekeeper is using her new ‘gift’ to spring clean the carpets. Life doesn’t get much riskier than that. I’m off to the Gym for another day of pain.
Thursday, 2nd January, 2025
What day is it? It’s felt like Monday all week. Something should be happening. Should I be going back to work? Outside it says is just 4C/39F but it feels really warm in the sunshine. Keep hearing that Greater Manchester is drowning but here looks rather like the Med. in winter. Strong, low sunshine out of an azure blue sky.
Just had an epiphany walking through Rustington High Street. I walked straight past the famous Pie Shop smelling of freshly baked pies and on to spend £50.00 in the Health Food Shop. What is going on?
Staying alive, staying alive … it’s just an attempt at staying alive. These are constituents of my Housekeeper’s home made Muesli. I have to say that, 4 months down the line, I am enjoying them. I have to say that.
Chatted to my old friend, John-R this morning. He was born in a place called Whitley Bay. I must admit I had never heard of it in 1969 when we first met. Actually, I wasn’t aware of anywhere North of Derby before I started applying to Universities. Anyway, John came from Whitley Bay and immediately told me how beautiful it was there. Great beaches and lovely scenery. I took his word for it but I’ve never been there. This morning, over Breakfast, Whitley Bay stared out at me. I contacted him to tell him that he and the girls from Whitley Bay were famous. I don’t think he knows any girls.
Out walking this afternoon, the beachside path was quite busy as people soaked up the sunshine. It may have been a little cold for ‘normal people’ swimming. But it was a lovely day to just stand and stare, dream dreams and drink in the sunshine through tired eyes.
You really should try it, Dear Reader. It is rejuvenating. Just an hour or so to do in the Gym and then I can relax.
Friday, 3rd January, 2025
Must have been cold over night. Bit of frost on the lawns this morning. Glorious sunrise. The beachside was magical and largely deserted. Many workers had gone back and the rest must have been lazing in bed.
An hour of sun and exercise and everything feels better. Tasks to get through today as well as a Gym session. Trying to get Housekeeper to complete cleaning all the carpets before she goes in for her operation next week. Ordered her some extra cleaning fluid for her Wedding Anniversary present to that end. My generosity knows no bounds!
In her spare time, she’s roasting a turkey for supper tonight and to make stock/soup for the next few weeks. Amazing buy in Sainsburys. A 4.6kg Taste the Difference Norfolk Black turkey which had sold for £60.00 before Xmas cost just £8.00 today.
Still trying to pin down accomodation and travel arrangements for two months – June in Valencia and November in Adeje so that we can have things sorted out and they give us targets to work towards.
Had a knee trembling experience yesterday as I did my Gym workout. I was watching a beautiful, sensitive, delightful, heartbreaking film called Birdsong on Netflix. It is a vivid depiction of the horror of war in 1914 but soft presentation of love and sexual attraction between two, youngish people. The contrast is deliberately accentuated as the film cuts from one to the other and back constantly.
After the war, many survivors reported that the abiding memory was not of the screams of men or the sound of gunfire, but of something seemingly hugely out of context:
It was the birdsong, the birdsong in that short gap when the artillery barrage stopped and before the whistles blew for us to get out of the trench and start running – it was beautiful.
The stark contrast between the mindlessness of men set against the eternal beauty of the natural world is symbolised in the contrast between men blowing each other up in muddy squalor set against the movements of a man and a woman making love in comparative comfort.
At that very point, I thought of my Father. He was someone who was present in my life but who I never really knew. I was 14 years old when he died at the age of 49. He had been a Captain and then a Major in the Royal Engineers and he fought / built bridges in the Sinai Peninsula & Palestine during the Second World War. I was young but I wasn’t stupid and I suddenly realised how little I had understood of the experiences that had made him the man he was and why he seemed so remote and so serious.
Saturday, 4th January, 2025
We have frost this morning. You can even see it on the roofs. We are just 3C/37F and it looks cold. At one point last night we were colder than Manchester. Very cold place Manchester! I am insulated in my Office with my renewed interest and enjoyment of music. I have taken out a subscription to Amazon Music. This morning, I am reliving the 1980s with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony – Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68.
In the 1980s, I used to drive back across the Pennines in my silver Honda Prelude sports car with the Pastoral Symphony at full volume and only the sheep to be disturbed. It was glorious. A triumph of Romanticism over Reality. I really am a romantic at heart but with a core of realism grinding along in the background.
The 1980s. I wouldn’t go back there for anything. I am happy in 2025 with all the improvements of life not least the fact that my CD player sits idly on the desk unplayed for months, years. Everything is downloaded now at the call of a voice and playable around the house on TVs and Amazon Alexa speakers. The whole process points up the distance we have travelled in my lifetime. In 1965, my grandfather gave me (and I admit a bit anachronistically) a wind up gramaphone and a collection of 78s. Large, already discontinued gramaphone records of opera, popular 1930s music hall songs and some classical pieces like Handel’s Largo which I fell in love with.
For a brief spell between 1966 and 1973, I listened to what would be called ‘pop’ music and Handel met the Moody Blues inside my head at least although only by chance because I never had a record player of my own. I remember buying a cassette player in 1974 and playing it until it just ate tapes, shredded them and spat them out again. Chopin was loved and destroyed in that. My first car with a CD player was in the late 1980s and that was revolutionary. Today, although I still have a CD player in the car (I think), it has never been used. Everything is downloaded from my phone and played through Android Auto app. So Amazon Music will go anywhere seamlessly.
Out for a walk and to the fish shop. In the time it took to write the first half of the Blog entry, the temperature outside had risen from 1C – 6C and things were brightening up. That’s the power of Beethoven. Actually, as so often, temperatures completely fooled me again. A strong beeze off the sea made 6C feel like -6C so I decided to not put myself through that discomfort. The Gym will be nice this morning.
We’ve learnt that when we see good fish to buy it immediately. It is often in short supply and disappears quickly. The UK catch is bought up by European markets or was before Brexit. When we see Locally Caught Sea Bass advertised, we buy it in bulk. It isn’t cheap but the difference between farmed sea bass – usually from Greek waters – and wild fish caught around here has to be tasted to be believed. It is much more expensive, rarely on show but well worth the wait. Today 10kgs of fresh fish including 2 sides of Salmon, 6 large Sea Bass and 2 kgs of quality Tuna cost £320.00. Healthy eating isn’t cheap.