Sunday, 23rd March, 2025
Can you imagine being married for 68 years, Dear Reader? Today, P&C have been married for exactly that long and we congratulate them.
Originating in the dark, satanic mills of Oldham, we hope they have a lovely day up there in sunny Surrey. Of course, a lot of it depends upon individual longevity. At ages 86 & 87, they’ve achieved that already.
Of course, old people are constantly asked on what the secret of their long life is founded and they resort to quite ridiculous things like brown bread and a boiled egg every morning and a glass of sweet sherry before bed. We know it’s nonsense but it is perpetuated. Most of us use the information selectively. I particularly like this one above reported in the Manchester Evening News yesterday.
When you’re old, by definition you have more time behind than in front. For me, finding, observing, reminding myself of the context of that time continuum I/we are on is important. Not in some sentimental way but to keep a hold on the movement of time. It has been a subject for poets throughout the ages.
These days, the world of social media and mobile phones means the process of reviewing the past and remembering it is more graphic. Yesterday, I received some photos from my old friend who I was in Digs with for 2 years 1969 – 71. He and I talk regularly about what we are doing in the present and aiming to do in the future. We will meet again this year for a proper catch up but remembering through pictures is good.
Just 10 years later in 1981, I was travelling across Europe to the Greek island of Sifnos. What should pop up yesterday but two photos from exactly that time. The first ferry I ever took from Piraeus to Kamares was the F/B Ionion. It doesn’t exist anymore other than in the memory and these photographs.
Monday, 24th March, 2025
Started the day with a lovely walk around the local area, through the gorgeous daffodil displays. It is invigorating and sets up the day to come. I have a series of fairly mundane housekeeping jobs to get through. I’ve got some seed sowing to do out in the garden and then some preparatory Finance work to do prior to the start of the new tax year on April 6th. It will be completed in the light of the Financial Statement on Wednesday.
Particularly, it will be important to see if the ISA rules are tightened. There has been speculation of the £20,000.00 per person per year tax-free savings allowance being drastically cut to just £4,000.00. There has always been talk of how long it would take one to become an ISA millionaire. Apparently, if you save the maximum allowance every year for 25 years is the answer. I have been too busy living life to manage that amount but, on reflection, perhaps I should have forced myself.
If you’re asking why I would even be considering this, an article in The Times this morning emphasises it’s significance. The full article is here. We have what are spuriously called gold-plated pensions and they are defined benefit and inflation-proofed. They should keep pace with prices over a retirement of 30 years far better than this lady’s Annuity Pension. We also have a modest State Pension and the huge advantage of the proceeds from the sale of our Greek home plus lifetime savings and investments. The longer we live, the more significant these will become.
The Labour Government are doing good things in a very difficult environment. Taxing private education or buying privilege for your children as we call it has been long overdue. I would ban all private education on principle. Taxing farmers as we tax everyone else is long overdue and will stop the rich landowners avoiding paying their due taxes. Making second home owners pay increased taxes makes sense in redistribution to the poorer end of society. If I am unable to shelter my savings from tax, I will understand and accept it although I will be disappointed. Hopefully, I can get the £40,000.00 for this year salted away before the change.
The problem is age. I have more or less accepted that I am too old to buy another property abroad although I still flirt with the idea at times. I do not have enough time to invest in the stock market in a full blooded way and wait to recover from a market downturn or crash. I have to invest more short term.
I have always believed that I am likely to die before my wife so I have sheets of instructions locked away about how to access all the funds. It is likely that Probate will be required for part of it so directions about how to deal with that are included. We have had very comprehensive wills since the early 1980s and our executors are still alive so that is in order.
Even so, it is good to review these conditions regularly. Certainly we will never be either rich or poor. We will always be reasonably comfortable. After 16 years of Retirement, we are still able to save/invest which I wouldn’t have predicted back then. Let’s hope we live to test the 30 year barrier. I will only be 88 years old, Dear Reader. I intend to be still walking 8 miles a day and doing a Gym routine.
Tuesday, 25th March, 2025
Last week of March. I’m hurtling towards the age of 74. I find it hard to say out loud. It hurts! We are also hurtling towards the new Tax Year, Dear Reader. Yes, I know, you can think of nothing else. This morning, I have an appointment at an investment bank where I hope to make a new, tax-sheltered investment for 2025.
Then, on to the Garden Centre to see where they are up to in terms of bedding plants, on to Wickes to order a delivery of fresh topsoil/compost to refresh the raised beds and pots. Suddenly, the Financial Year and the Horticultural Year restart with a jump and it’s good to be ready.
It’s turned into a lovely day of warm sunshine. Going out for a walk because fitness is the state most important to longevity followed by affluence and happiness. It is not surprising to find that the affluent are much more likely to be happy with their state than those struggling to survive.
There is a distinct difference between longevity and a healthy life. For many, the final decade or more is marked by ill health and disability. The aim is to marry health and longevity together.
Another 8 miles in the bank. I’ve now completed 8 miles a day, every day for 7.5 months apart from one day which haunts me even now. In over 1700 miles, there was a day that I just couldn’t complete because I had a long, tiring drive and got home exhausted. I tried to raise myself but just couldn’t do it. It makes me angry with myself and ashamed every time I look at the stats. – which is every day and sometimes two or three times a day.
Wednesday, 26th March, 2025
Glorious morning. Strong Spring sunshine. Buds on trees and bushes bursting fresh green everywhere. Amazingly confident birds calling from every branch, establishing their territory, confirming their mates, preparing for the perpetuation of Life.
It is a time of optimism and hope. New, confident beginnings. A promise of better times ahead. The Summer is coming. The only downside of this movement forward is that we will all be older.
We have got a summer of travel to come but I am trying so hard to keep everything buttoned down until then. Self denial, self discipline, self impulsion, self flagellation, self responsibility are the watchwords until May. The common denominator is self. It falls to me and my determination in all these things. I hold myself responsible and it must be me who fixes it.
I was surprised by an interview I read yesterday with the opera singer from Manchester – Russell Watson. He suffered a glandular tumour which was treated with radiotherapy. The radiotherapy left him suffering, constantly tired for two years afterwards. If that is a common result, it explains why I have been strugling so much with my physical condition. I am almost back. I am on course for walking 3,000 miles this year. I will have done at least 8 months on a restricted calorie intake and no alcohol. It is all a continual battle but I am winning it.
The lovely weather promises that it will all be worth it. Let’s hope we have a good May with nice weather both here and when I am away. More seed sowing in the sunshine today after a 90 minute walk and then an hour in the Gym.
Just been following the Chancellor’s Spring Statement and it was good to hear that The Office for Budget Responsibility have upgraded forecasts for growth over the life of the Parliament based on Labour’s building plans. I was just as pleased to hear no plans for tightening ISA limits. It may be something on the cards for the future so I will attempt to shelter as much as possible over the next few years.
We have a swanky, new care home near us. At least one of us may need it at some stage. It has specialisms which include Dementia but it allows one to buy/rent whole apartments and includes lots of facilities to make the last years of life enjoyable. The cost of services is about £50,000.00 per year in addition to property prices/acommodation charges. It will not be cheap and it will not be provided under Social Care support. With no children, we will have to find it all ourselves. We need to prepare but hope we don’t need it for another 20 years or so.
Thursday, 27th March, 2025
Glorious morning after quite a cold night. We went down to 4C/39F for the first time for a while. The sky was sparkling and clear last night but is blue and cloudless this morning. It is going to be a growing day for nature.
Nature is a wonderful thing. I sowed these seeds just 36 hours ago and stored them under cloche lids to keep warmth and humidity up. The result is above. I think it is incredible. If I had had the time and patience to sit and watch, I’m sure I could have seen this germination and growth process with the naked eye. These little, flat and dry whispers of seed are so programmed in nature to feel a warm, wet environment and immediately reached down to the floor for nutrition and up to the sunlight for further nutrition.
And from litle acorns … Well, this is the story of life. Generation. Making, nurturing and growing babies. Hoping for the future, their future. It is a selfless act of respect for life. Look how these scrawny, little sticks of green energy will develop and mature in the next couple of months. I wonder if they will go to university, get married and have children. It is all in the lap of fate.
My Housekeeper has multiple jobs/skills. She is a chef, laundry woman, electrician, builder, painter & decorator, hairdresser and, each morning she is my chiropodist. (Sexy or what?) All this walking demands lots of footcare. Every morning I have my feet checked and creamed. Consequently, they are beautiful and soft. In fact, according to her they are one of my best (only) features.
I’m going to have to work on BALANCE. I’ve noticed that mine is becoming suspect. It is something which happens in age and has to be fought against. Can you stand on one leg …. with your eyes closed? I know I have always struggled with things like that but I’ve noticed that I am even less capable of it now.
The project for today, and we all need one, is to treat the car with a new product I’ve bought. It is a silicon and polyeurethane resin spray coating. A black car is always difficult to keep clean and this sparkling, black, metallic paint quickly shows even the dust spots out of rain. I have to clean it and then coat it in the resin which shines up to showroom level and then (allegedly) shrugs off water and dirt for up to 8 months. We will see. I’ll let you know.
Friday, 28th March, 2025
The morning started off damp but has soon brightened up to blue sky and sunshine. Must wish my sister, Jane, happy 71st birthday. She is spending it on Gran Canaria.
Been talking to my old friend, JohnR, and sharing with him this photo from yesterday’s The Times.
When I left home to go to College, JohnR was the second new person I met on arrival at my Digs. To say I was green and innocent would be an understatement. My first Digs mate was Nigel from the South of England. He was sitting under a table, morosely playing Leonard Cohen – Bird on the Wire. Who the hell was Leonard Cohen? It sounded like nightmare noise.
Dismissing that shock for a while, I was next presented with JohnR, a fresh faced, penny whistle playing, Methodist, Geordie who spoke in an accent and a language I had never heard before. He called me Bonnie Lad which had certainly not happened before. He told me he came from Whitley Bay. I’d never heard of it. Was it on Mars? He told me how beautiful it was and he spoke with a pride about his origins which I had never felt myself. We speak quite often now but I have never been been to his home town. If it looks like this. I’ve definitely missed out. I’m looking forward to seeing him again soon.
Revisiting old memories is really on my mind at the moment. This is the time we would be preparing to set off for Greece and our garden and the surrounding hillsides would be carpeted in greenery after Winter rains. The flowers would be everywhere and the barren, dry earth of mid-Summer hardly imaginable. A friend sent these yesterday. It brings it all back immediately.
Age tarnishes everything, Dear Reader, and not necessarily for the better. Just the passage of time is enough to bring about a need for renewal. I rather like to see old buildings re-purposed and renewed. But today, after 8 short years, I have to buy new Office Chairs. Just day to day scraping and twisting have made ours look too lived-in to be acceptable. They’ve gone up in price a bit since then but not too badly. A pair of smart, Office chairs = £520.00. Sold!
Although the day has just got better and better, wrapping its warm arms around us – 16C/61F (palindromic heat) – I have got more and more tired and jittery as I pushed myself in the Gym. In there, I am watching the 7th series of Homeland. It is just pure brilliance. If you watch nothing else for the rest of your life, I would urge you to watch this, Dear Reader. With Trump in power and Russia/China on the rise, this Drama is so on point.
Saturday, 29th March, 2025
March is almost over and we lose another hour tonight as the clocks go forward. Got to make the most of this life. It is the most glorious, warm and sunny day. I’ve been chatting to Kevin in Leeds, Peter in Harrogate, David in Bolton, Andy in central London, Julie in North Yorkshire and Sue in Gozo, Malta. The latter is a girl from Oldham who was Pauline’s best friend throughout her years at Hathershaw school. She has been living on Gozo for the past 5 years and looks very happy there. She is the same age. We are all aging.
I love the internet. All of these things are only possible because of it. We share words, photos, videos across the ether at the switch of a keyboard. This morning I received news of the death of a Sifnos resident. Testament to the simple life and the mediterranean diet, Angelos Loumidis was born in 1928 – just short of his century.
A simple farmer still using the old methods of donkey transport and the old, stone threshing circle for harvest. This video shows Loumidis directing activity in the threshing circle which looks out across the sea to the islands of Paros and Antiparos.
A simple farmer on a Greek island will never get rich. His will have been a subsistence level of life. Rich in experience and friendship but without the commercial trappings of modernity. Living on the fruits of his own labour – olive oil, tomatoes, chickpeas, freshly baked bread and home made wine. I want to live to 100 but I’m not sure that simplicity would be worth it now.