Sunday, 25th May, 2025
Rain over night – fantastic. Sunny and warm this morning – fantastic. Out on an early walk, the world looks lovely. It’s amazing but the older I get the more important small experiences are.
This little vignette on my walk this morning seems to sum up the pleasure in living. Poppies – Papaveraceae – flower brightly and beautifully but are over very quickly. A metaphor for Life?
Just two weeks and we will be off to Gatwick Airport and on to Thessaloniki in Northern Greece. I have fallen in love with this city over the past few years and really look forward to renewing my acquaintance with it.
By day and by night it has so much to offer in terms of culture and friendliness, sights and sounds, food and exercise. All of that comes with the delicious heat of Greeek sun and lapping of the Aegean Sea across the Thermaic Gulf. Can’t wait!
A dear friend from school who still lives in West Yorkshire is 70 this week. I am thinking of her now as she was 20 years ago. My carer, I’ve worked out, will be 74 in just over 4 months. I am about to buy machinery which has a 5 year warranty which will end when I’m 79. Age is racing towards us. One of the most important things to do, in my view, is not let go of the Future. Don’t say, Oh, I’m too old for all that. I intend to be exercising, travelling, embracing new technology, pestering my friends right up until my very last breath. I certainly won’t be buying cars that aren’t complicated, as the Sunday Telegraph trumpets. That way is …. the end.
Monday, 26th May, 2025
Woke at 4.30 am on this warm, bright morning. I dread it. My head explodes with thoughts at that time. Given to introspection at the best of times, my mind goes into overdrive in the silent moments of the early hours. It is a time to reflect on the context of existence. That is scary enough but the radio was running an Obituary programme and everyone seemed to be dying in their late 70s and early 80s.
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
…
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
…
We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.Extracts from T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets 4: Little Gidding
I think it was sparked by the death of Alan Yentob – a giant of BBC culture and management – at the frighteningly young age of 78.
I’m 74. I have 4 years, only 4 years. What can I do in just 4 years? I must do it all this year just in case. Everything has to be reconnected before it is too late.
Thou hast nor youth nor age
But as it were an after dinner sleep
Dreaming of both.
Shakespeare: Measure for Measure: Act Three
It is the utter inevitability of age and what it brings that is so undermining. We see people we know aging all around us. We see their age-related stresses, their needs for support and comfort and predict our own by inference. I constantly check myself for signs. I work hard to convince myself that it is not now, not yet.
Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.
T. S. Eliot: Gerontion
But when?
Tuesday, 27th May, 2025
Very blustery night – warm but quite wet. Dry this morning but still windy and grey. Going out for an early walk while I can. While out, the robots will be at work. Those upstairs and downstairs – Little John and Little John’s Mate vacuuming the floors. Upstairs it is a mixture of carpet and tiles. Downtairs it has to adjust between carpet, tiles and wooden flooring.
They take about 40 minutes to complete their routine’s and return to base to recharge. Of course, John and his Mate could do the job themselves but so much better to have it done for us while we do things we want to do. It was interesting over the weekend to read of the increasing take-up of robot technology particularly by Gen.Z. I’ve always known that I am young at heart if old in body. I was a reasonably early adopter of Robot Vacs but we have all been using robotics without realising it for years.
I was amused to read that, in giving my robots nicknames, I am adopting nationwide habits without realising. Of course, we have all been using robotics in our daily lives for a long time. You only have to look at simple machines – say washing machines – that can be switched on remotely or just by a timer, that can be told how long to wash, to spin, etc. Nowadays, they can be told to sense the type of fabrics inside and how much water is required to wash them. You can look all over one’s life for these sorts of things.
We have been in our ‘new’ house for more than 9 years now and are just starting to look around for a refresh. Usually, that would mean a new house. This time, we are just going to refresh the current house. Starting with the Utility Room, new technology driven appliances that make things easier, do things better and more economically are being ordered. A joiner will rework the unit housing and an electrician will add extra sockets.
In the Hallway and downstairs Cloakroom, the flooring will be replaced. This has been a debate for a while. We looked at it months ago and couldn’t agree. We have agreed that it will be hard wearing, wood (effect). We have now narrowed it down (I think) to these two choices: mine is on the left and is obviously much nicer. This will be quite disruptive so our workers will do it while we are away for a month in Tenerife.
The next debate is adding aditional units, work surface and an American-style Fridge Freezer in the Kitchen. It will mean moving a radiator and the Television to further down the room so will be quite involved.
Wednesday, 28th May, 2025
A warm night where we didn’t fall below 16C/61F. A sunny morning and I’ve done an early walk. My Housekeeper is cutting, preparing and freezing herbs for the future. There’s going to be a future? Sage, Tarragon, Rosemary and Parsley will be washed, chopped and packed into freezer labelled boxes. I’m looking at Trades People for house redevelopment and sorting out upcoming travel plans.
We have some brilliant workers on our books already but there are so many good people in the market for work around here and, just in time, the lates monthly Trades Magazine came through the door while I was out. Kitchen fitters, Electricians, Plumbers, etc. are everywhere. The hardest part is deciding which from which. We try to develop relationships with people and keep hold of them but there is always churn. Anyway, it is good to keep them on their toes with healthy competition.
We have 8 flights booked for the next few months and it is my responsibility to pre-book Executive Lounge places for each. Although we have ‘free’ access to them all, we have found recently that they get ‘full’ at this time of the year so I forward book them to ensure places. I have done them all now and the Entry Passes have been downloaded to our Digital Wallets on our smartphones. Every flight is with Easyjet and one can check in between 30 days and 2 hours before the flight departs. I have been doing that and saving Boardingh Passes in our Digital Wallets as well. If I was a Gen. Z generation – 24 instead of 74 – that would be enough. Being an old man, I also print a hard copy just in case.
Being an old man, my memories go back quite a way. On this day 16 years ago, I recorded this sad event:
It is a sad but important record that only lives on in memory. And, in my view, that is important.
While here in West Sussex, we are beginning to work on our Kitchen and Utility rooms and searching out materials and tradesmen, 15 years ago we were doping exactly that in our Greek home. We were off to Athens to source tiling for the kitchen and the patio.
It was an involved business which meant three days of travelling, hotels, taxis, Haulage Trucks on ferries and off onto the island. It all added to the costs. We had to get our estimates right. Run short of materials and the work to get more was not easy. Life is a lot easier now.
Thursday, 29th May, 2025
Woke up early with things walking through my head. A disappointingly grey but very warm start to the day. It rained over night which was useful. The grass colour is returning to nearly green.
Populism and populist are terms used to emphasize the idea of the common people and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is often associated with anti-intellectual, anti-establishment and anti-political class sentiment. It is also often associated with Nationalism and tends towards Authoritarianism. It appears with the rise of the extremities of political thought – Far Left and Far Right.
It emerged for the first time in the 1850s in pre-revolutionary France and pre-revolutionary Russia. Populism constructs The People as a virtuous and unified group and sets them against The Elite which is portrayed as a homogeneous, corrupt force undermining the people’s will. Rousseau said only the people know what is best for society which John Stuart Mill countered with the concept of the tyranny of the majority. Populist leaders harness that dichotomy.
We saw it in Stalin and in Hitler – extremes of Left and Right. We saw it in Mao Tse-Tung and Mussolini but it waxes and wanes according to the times and social conditions. We have had the rise of dangerous Right Wing Populism in Hungary with Viktor Orbán and the potential for Marine Le Pen‘s group in France. In the US, we have Trump and here we have Farage.
All have one thing in common. They identify concerns of the uneducated, disposessed and never posessed and offer simple solutions to alleviate those concerns. Simple solutions to complex problems are superficially attractive especially if you don’t examine them too closely but will never ultimately work. The Judiciary in the US is holding Trump to account. The Labour Government in UK is holding a light up to the absurdity that is Faragism.
Even so, these are destabilising times and ones in which we should all be alert. We have to stand up and be counted. It was good to see the Prime Minister call out the bogus economics of Farage’s populist policies. It is important that they should not go unchallenged even though it bestows an air of respectability on them in that address.
Friday, 30th May, 2025
Another grey start to the day. What is going on? It’s Flaming June on Sunday. Looking forward to our imminent trip to Greece. Third time for this lovely city on the edge of the Thermaic Gulf and our delightful hotel – The Electra Palace.
This year, we’ve pushed the boat out and moved up to the top floor Suite. We thought that we might as well indulge ourselves after a hard year of exercise and diet.
Thessaloniki is a lovely place for walking and for just sitting and watching the world go by, for cafes and restaurants and wonderful food. Of course, it is also a place for warm sunshine and enjoyable swimming.
After yesterday’s Blog, I was pleased to hear an inspirational interview with my American namesake, Bernie Sanders on Radio 4 this morning. The mad, American Right like to cast him as a Communist – they even described Joe Biden that way at one point so you can judge how far to the right they are. The thrust of Sanders’ thesis is that it wasn’t Biden’s late withdrawal that cost Kamala Harris the Presidency but the policy offer. Populists make ordinary, working people think they are on their side, have their best interests at heart when, usually, they only have their own interests at heart.
When working people are struggling to put food on the table, pay their rent/mortgage, heat their house, pay for their Healthcare and Education, they will vote for someone who says they feel their pain and will do something about it. They won’t be interested in fairly arcane transgender issues, Universities freedoms or even Abortion rights. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer those policies but they shouldn’t be elevated above the nitty gritty. And there is the lesson for Labour and the Lib.Dems. in the UK.
Saturday, 31st May, 2025
Lovely morning, Dear Reader and it’s a gardening day. Of course, I still have my daily exercise routine to complete but then I’ll get on with work.
The potatoes – I’m growing Casablanca First Earlies for a change. – are growing madly and will start to be lifted when we get back from Thessaloniki. I think I’ve overdone it with the lettuces but it will help with the diet.
A bucket of Parsley will be washed, chopped and frozen for the Winter. I love Mediterranean herbs but find I’m returning to the ones of my childhood – scary!
I left the sun of the back garden where things are developing nicely and went down to the beach where a different climate existed entirely. I think they call it sea-fret and it looked weird. with people paddling in the sea but barely visible.
Very warm but weirdly inappropriate would be how I would describe the experience. We didn’t stay. There seemed no point although the sun was obviously trying to fight through.