Sunday, 5th January, 2025
Heavy rain over night. I woke at 5.00 am and my phone said the temperature outside was 11C/52F and that Greater Manchester and Leeds were both 1C/34F and snowing. My friends up there were sending me photos and the news was of the closures of Manchester, Leeds Bradford and Liverpool Airports. I’m just hoping the football match isn’t cancelled this afternoon.
I must admit my heart sinks at the memories of these mornings but it would be tomorrow when the real problems would start. Rain outside means hours in the Gym instead.
Music today is an old favourite which I’ve always found so moving. I first heard Elgar’s Enigma Variations as late as 1974 when I was teaching a Summer School in Ripon. I thought nothing of it until almost a decade later I picked it up again. Music and Time and Events all roll into one ball of emotion that is hard to quell.
Playing it in my Office this morning brings back those times with such clarity. I’ve just finished watching the most moving Romantic Drama set in the tragedy that was the First World War and Elgar’s music is so intertwined with that time. Sorry, old man syndrome. Getting maudlin. It’s one of my least attractive qualities although others run it close.
I have done just over 2hrs straight in the Gym and I am absolutely shattered. It’s a good shattered but I don’t want to lift another finger. My Housekeeper has completed the cleaning of the upstairs carpets. Her routine will be almost complete after she has valeted the sofas and touched up the tiny scratches that day to day living leaves on paintwork. I don’t like to interfere so stay out of the way on these occasions. At least the big match is on this afternoon so I can relax in comfort.
Just had a Direct Message from Sue Wilson in the Charente. Although she is living in France and UK, she is thinking of selling her Midlands property and buying near us on the South Coast. I think she’s rather been taken by my photographs. If you know the Charente, you would wonder why but I’ve told her that we welcome all immigrants.
Monday, 6th January, 2025
I’m weather obsessed at the best of times. This weekend the world caught up with me. It is not so often that the North of England makes all the headlines in newspapersbut this morning Ripon, Leeds, Oldham are all featured on the frontpages.
These were the days when we got up so much earlier than others and set off specifically to get to work and assess the conditions. It looks like we may have had an impossible task this morning and the school closure may have been preordained. The next iteration of my old school had already put up this screen.
It was put up from home by my IT Technician from more than 15 years ago. I trained him in Teach First and he is now Head of IT – a very satisfying conclusion. How a callow youth can become serious adult.
Talking about callow youths – here are some more. For those who care about these things, it is Epiphany and in Greece people greet each other with Χριστός ἀνέστη! or Christ is risen. Yes, I realise how bonkers it is but we all have our lunacies. This morning, on Sifnos Island, in Kamares Harbour where we used to live, the callow youths dive into the icy waters for a gilded cross (electro-plated) tossed by the local witch doctor (sorry, priest).
While my health is back to excellent and my weight is well on its way down again, Pauline, who is never ill … is not well. This morning she has had to see her GP about a recent problem and this afternoon I am taking her to Southlands Hospital in Shoreham-by-Sea prior to an operation on Wednesday. It is an uncomfortable and nervous week.
Music for today was composed in 1936 by Samuel Barber and is the ultimate in pathos. Rarely does it leave a dry eye in the house. it arrived at just the right moment, when America was still hurting from the Great Depression and Europe was sliding into war. I challenge anyone not to be moved by it.
Tuesday, 7th January, 2025
Weighing things up today. Booking multiple travel arrangements and filling the 2025 calendar to provide all the work a real purpose. But first, we welcome this gorgeous day with a walk by the beach.
Looks wonderful but actually was very cold with a biting off-shore breeze. An hour was enough and then home for coffee.
Our Annual Travel Insurance Policy is provided ‘free’ with our Black Account at our Bank. I say free but the Account costs us £35.00 per month or £420.00 per year. Banking is never really ‘free’. We just pay openly or invisibly. We have used an openly payed for Premier Banking service partly because of the services that come with it. It allowed us a huge, free, instant overdraft facility which was useful when we were building abroad.
Of these existing services, Travel Insurance, Airport Lounge Access and Mobile Phone Insurance are the most valuable to us. Everything else is doubling up things we have elsewhere or things I don’t know about. Why would I want a Concierge Service or a Ticket Booking Service? What is Cinema & Film Rental?
Travel Insurance has always been valuable and made the account virtually pay for itself. Each year we have an unlimited, worldwide travel policy fully covered. Now, of course, we are in our 70s. That brings a surcharge of £75.00 per person. We also have existing medical conditions which bring an extra surcharge. Having just sorted out the 2025 renewal, that ‘free’ policy will cost an extra £426.00. Having had cancer is costing me about £250.00 per year although I am fitter than I have been for a long time.
I’ve just done a comparative quote travel insurance search and this £1,286.13 is the cheapest equivalent offer I could find. Makes me feel a bit better about my ‘free’ policy. Suffice it to say, I won’t be buying All Clear now.
Wednesday, 8th January, 2025
A crystal clear sky full of stars gave us quite a cold night and there was a hint of frost on the roofs this morning first thing. Ignoring that I’ve been out for an early walk because my job is Ambulance driver this morning. I am taking Pauline to Southlands Hospital in Shoreham-by-Sea. She is nil by mouth because she is being operated on in the early afternoon. She doesn’t react particularly well to a General Anaesthetic so she’s not looking forward to it and it will be an uncomfortable operation for anyone.
My friend, Kevin, is 75 today. That makes me feel a lot better. Turns out all that group were older me. I even went out with an older woman. Kevin had his car stolen a fortnight ago and has heard nothing about it yet. Must be a nightmare situation. To add to that, he has Flu’ and is 75. Makes you wonder if life is worth living any more.
Just 5 years ago, Kevin and I were reunited after almost 50 years apart. It was an emotional but life-affirming experience and we have remained in contact almost daily since. We live at opposite ends of the country but the web has allowed us to bridge that gap.
Of course, I hope my wife comes through her operation and lives another day or two but the most important event happens tomorrow. The new dishwasher is being delivered, plumbed in and fitted with its kitchen door and I no longer have to do the drying up. For two weeks now, it has felt like the 1950s in our house. It’s been like losing an arm … no, worse. It’s been like losing the internet. There, I’ve said it.
We have ordered a good quality Bosch built-in machine which automatically comes with a full, 5-year warranty. I hope it will be a lot longer before I have to go through this again.
Thursday, 9th January, 2025
Well, the operation went better than well. The patient was first on the list and in the theatre early. She was relieved to find she was being operated on by the surgeon she had built a good relationship with and the whole thing went so well, I was able to collect her in the evening.
The hospital is lovely. The people are fantastic. It is about 25 mins drive from the house but that isn’t a problem. Our nearest hospital is in Worthing which is not much nearer but where I would go in an emergency although we have an ambulance centre just round the park so it should be quite efficient.
Soon after we got home, the official results of the procedure were input by the medical staff and uploaded on the NHS app. We were able to read about the success of the day. Pauline was much more proud of one line in her notes that said:
Clinical Frailty Score: 1 – very fit.
Where 1 is best and 10 is most frail, this was pointed out to me a few times last night until she fell asleep after the stress of the day.
But, enough of that. Today is DISHWASHER DAY. Wonder of wonders. It will be delivered and fitted mid-morning so I’m going out for an early walk. My weight is coming down quite rapidly at the moment and my fitness levels really are back now. It feels so good after a lengthy fight. Now been alcohol-free for 130 days. In fact, I’m getting addicted to alcohol-free Cabernet Sauvignon – a whole glass each evening.
Sky News has been running an article about the boom in use of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy is beginning to turn the tide in UK. I am proud that I haven’t had to resort to anything like that but have done it through personal discipline and effort. It makes me feel better about myself.
The worst has happened and I am depressed. Currys have turned up with the wrong dishwasher. Our order has been cancelled and will have to start again. I will be drying up by hand again tonight! Actually, we may even reassess our order. We have since found a better one and are going out to look at it ….. New dishwasher ordered and I have to wait 13 days for installation. Life just isn’t worth living!
Although, of course, it is. There may be unfriendly people in the world but they will get their just deserts. There may be unhelpful situations in one’s life but they will fade in the great scheme of things. There will always be beauty. Gorgeous walk in the Marina this afternoon.
Friday, 10th January, 2025
A cool night. We went down to 0C/32F and the car had some frost on it this morning. Thank goodness for auto-defrost facilities on modern cars. Greater Manchester and North Yorkshire saw -7C/19F which always makes me think of those sleeping rough. It is a situation likely to bring death to the undernourished. Tonight will be even colder according the forecast. There will be no shorts wearing for a while.
It is ironic just as the news is dominated by wildfires in Los Angeles and the Copernicus climate change service report that last year was the warmest on record, the first to breach a symbolic threshold, and brought with it deadly impacts like flooding and drought, scientists have said.Two new datasets found 2024 was the first calendar year when average global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale. The past decade has seen every year in the top 10 hottest on record. Beginning to look a lot like global warming …
Just as the idiot, Trump, is selling Drill, Baby, Drill (for oil) to his equally idiot supporters, so the world is on fire as The Times cartoon makes brilliantly clear this morning. They are all really in LaLa Land all ready to be exploited by the far right Trump/Musl axis.
Talking to my friend, Kevin, who lives in North Yorkshire. He got up the day after Boxing day to find his car – a white Ford Puma – had been stolen from his drive in a relatively quiet, marginally rural area above Leeds. My first thought was someone struggling to get home from Christmas celebrations late at night had seen an opportunity. However, Kevin says both sets of keys were in his house and the ignition is electronic so needing sophisticated technology to start. Hardly an impulse reveller’s ability. And so it has proved. Nothing abandoned at the roadside. No sightings or police action at all. It is now 15 days since he reported it and nothing. Can you imagine it?
A grey and chilly day down at the beach – just 5C/41F – and the breeze made it feel much colder. An hour’s walking was plenty outside. Have to do the rest in the Gym today.
Saturday, 11th January, 2025
Bit of frost again this morning after a cold night. A wonderful day in prospect. Sunshine all the way. My weight had dropped again this morning which explains why I felt so hungry all day yesterday. Keep having to tell myself it is all in a good cause.
I don’t know if you read the Daily Telegraph. I do although I am not a natural fit. It is mainly for those who want to return to 1955 and for the politically insane. I read it to counterbalance more sensible, main stream political philosophy. However, I think this professor is absolutely correct as he strips back the hype about weight loss.
For some time now, new ‘experts’ have advertised the efficacy of all sorts of weird and wonderful methods. Professor Frayn debunks them all and insists that calories in v calories out ultimately is the only thing that works. As he says in this article, you only have to look at pictures of workers leaving an Oxford car factory in the 1950s. They weren’t driving home. They were all on bikes or they walked. They ate smaller meals and burned far more calories.
I began my fight back from the effects the cancer treatment had had on my body when I flew back fom Athens on August 27th last year – 137 days ago. I had realised how unfit and overweight I had become. It had come as something of a revelation. I was shocked how it had crept up on me and I made a resolution as soon as I landed.
I have not drunk any alcohol since that day. I have restricted myself to 1500 calories per day and not missed a single day of walking 7.5 miles. I am walking at least 53 miles every week and around 213 miles every month. I have already walked 1000 miles since I started the campaign.
As a result, since the end of August, I have lost 1/6th or 17% of my bodyweight and massively improved my fitness particularly my cardiovascular endurance. Just weigh yourself, Dear Reader, and then divide it by 6. If you lost that, how would you feel? My blood pressure has improved enormously as has my INR.
My wife has had to put up with this regime both activity and diet. As a result, she weighs less than she has done for 40 years and, as the surgeon noted this week, she is very fit. The downside of this is she constantly needs new clothes. Our door is repeatedly battered by brochures from clothing companies. We are regularly receiving and sometimes returning things. Today, will be a trip to Worthing Pier. Opposite is M&S where she has seen the style of jeans/trousers that she likes. I prefer baggy clothes on little people but there it is.
Fortunately, the jeans were rubbish so it cost me nothing although I did buy a couple of bottles of alcohol-free red wine. I am 137 alcohol-free days and counting. I’m thinking of converting to become a Methodist Temperance Society Blue Ribboner – what do you think? Yes, there’s going to be a hell of a party when this is over.