Sunday, 26th October, 2025
Quite a chilly night and we went down to 5C/41F – the coldest this Autumn. I’ll still be walking in shorts and tee shirt as strong sunshine covers our area but the change is noticeable. The house is deliciously warm with sunshine streaming in. No need for central heating yet and off to Canarian sunshine on Saturday.
Even so, we have returned to discussing solar panels again. Wickes, the Builders’ Merchant, have seized the initiative and established a nationwide supply and installation service. Their offering suggests supplying, and fitting 12 x panels plus battery storage with all upfront costs and a 25 year warranty for £8950.00. Under this plan, they suggest a 7 year period to recoup that outlay or almost £1300.00 per annum. Is it worth the disruption? Something to think about and discuss while we are away. In 7 years, I’ll be 81 if I am still alive. (Scream!)
The sad experience from yesterday of the relatively young lady trapped upstairs in a Dementia Home stayed with me all night. I found it harrowing, haunting. It left me trawling through my life, banging on the upstairs window of my past, calling, Help Me! I remember the days when Life was optimistic and positive.
In this week in 2008, I was preparing for my last Ofsted Inspection. All around was heavy snow. Global Warming was a new concept and the climate hadn’t read the reports. A year later in 2009, we had retired and my Mother-in-Law had shingles at the age of 96. It was incredibly painful. We were trying to support her while rejoicing in the knowledge that we were mortgage-free for the first time in our marriage.
The failing bank, Northern Rock, wrote to us to tell us that our borrowings of £270,000 had been paid off. We never borrowed again. Every subsequent property has been bought with cash. Northern Rock no longer exists.
In 2010, we were taking P&C over to have lunch at Ciao Bella in Huddersfield. The restaurant is no longer there. Weird to think that P is now dead and C is in Dementia Care.
A year later, in 2011, we were moving in to our Duplex Apartment in Surrey and starting on the next 5-year plan. In 2012, and as a sign of the inability to let my past go, we were preparing to drive up to Huddersfield to take delivery of our new car. A year later, in 2012, we were organising the payment of a large power bill in Sifnos – emphasising the ongoing responsibility of foreign ownwership.
By 2014, having sold our Greek home, we were out, loking for a new property in Sussex and, a year later, in 2015 we had bought off-plan and were down in Sussex talking to the Developers about our individual requirements. We had to live with garden furniture in the kitchen and a lack of wardrobes in the first year but, by 2016, we had new wardrobes fitted by an Oldham company in every bedroom and we had our Dining Table and chairs at last from Manchester.
By 2017, we were really settled and ensconced in David Lloyd Health Centre where we spent every day using the outdoor pool come rain, cold and shine. We haven’t been back since the pandemic.
By this week in 2018, we were preparing to fly to Tenerife for a month in the sun and spending our first night in Gatwick Sofitel. Guess what we’re preparing to do this week – preparing to fly to Tenerife for a month in the sun and spending our first night in Gatwick Sofitel.
And so it is, just like you said it would be. Life goes easy for me ….. most of the time. And so it is. The shorter story …. But, Dear Reader, through this veil of tears we can never rest on our laurels. Life is constantly in flux and we must prepare ourselves for change. Are you ready?
Monday, 27th October, 2025
Glorious day but a sad one as well. It is 15 years ago today that my lovely Mother in Law’s funeral took place. I wrote and delivered the Eulogy and nothing has ever been easier to write. I had so much to say. She was such a lovely woman and I remember every moment of the day.
Actually, I have been unable to exercise for a couple of days because I have injured my toe in one of my regularly ‘accidents’. I kicked a table leg (accidentally) with my bare foot and it is screamingly blue and painful so I am resting it. I have some time on my hands and I have asked for some help from my old friend and ‘official’ Oldham Historian, John, with a search on a document that came up out of my recently deceased Sister in Law’s effects. It was a reference written for her husband, Colin, by her Uncle, John James Barnes in the 1960s.
Jane’s daughter and Pauline’s sister, Phyllis, died a few weeks ago and her husband, Colin, is in a Care Home. From Phyllis’ effects came a Reference for Colin in the 1960s written by John James Barnes – the brother of Phyllis and Pauline’s Dad. He had died in 1967. His ‘Carrier’ business was based at 2 Solomon Street, Oldham which no longer exists.
I have been able to trace Pauline’s family back to 1759 through the Norfolk branch which originated from Norwich. They moved to Oldham in the 1850s when the Cotton Trade of Norfolk collapsed and that of Oldham and other Northern towns was booming. It is a fascinating tale worth telling and I am going to work on it over the Winter wherever I am in the world.
It will mean spending some time in Oldham, searching out and meeting people which could be fun, Dear Reader. First, I am enlisting the help of the guru of Oldham’s Local History Centre who has been teaching Oldham History for what seems like a lifetime.
John has access to all the Local History Community Centre‘s archives – maps, trades and professions records, movers and shakers from the past, etc. I have a feeling that, when I go up to see him on my return from Tenerife, he will have done a lot of the leg work for me.
Tuesday, 28th October, 2025
Must wish my Greek friends and readers Happy National (Ochi) Day. Today is the day in 1940 when the Greek Leader, Metaxas, bravely chose to defy the the Fascist advance of Mussolini and the Nazi forces of Hitler and to deny their forces access to Greece. He said, No (Ochi) and became an instant hero of proud Greece.
Today is like a Bank Holiday on steroids and Greeks take every opportunity, outside tourist time, to whoop it up. Anyway, enjoy yourselves and drink a glass of Metaxa Brandy or three. We know that, even though it is warm and sunny today, you will be dressed for skiing in the snow and shivering as if the Ice Age had arrived.
I am not so brave. If only I had the Metaxas spirit. I will jet off to the sun at the weekend a month of warmer weather before returning to a number of medical procedures. Within a couple of days of returning in December, I am having a ceramic crown 3D printed to fit my broken tooth and fitted all in the same morning. I have managed to negotiate the price down from £1000.00 to £750.00 but the price will still hurt more than the procedure.
Next, I expected to have a PSA blood Test and a full body scan prior to meeting the Oncology Team at Worthing Hospital for my Annual Review. Yesterday, I received a phone call which I thought at first was a ‘scam’ telling me that I had to go for a Cystoscopy at the Urology Department. I had to ask her how to spell it so I could look it up and, as you’ll see from the diagram, I rather wish I hadn’t. I am considering sending my wife instead.
Been down to the Marina in the sunshine to take my mind off it. This is Oyster Pond near the Marina where kids sail little boats in the Summer and old men sail them in the Winter. It’s Half Term so the Funfair is open which is where the kids are today.
Wednesday, 29th October, 2025
I used to teach kids the word Coincidence when I was English teacher in my early days by talking about the man who walked to work each day down the same road past a row of terraced houses. The couple who lived at No 43 were very poor and couldn’t afford to maintain their roof. Gradually, it got worse and things began to slip until, one day just as the man was passing, a slate finally gave way and hit him on the head and killed him.
Two incidents coming together to produce another event. Incident 1.:The man walking past No.43. Incident 2.:The unmaintained roof slate making its final slip. Event: Dead man on pavement. Who doesn’t like a bit of slapstick? And it helps to keep the word’s construction and origin fixed in a little mind.
Coincidences are everywhere and make the world seem a little more integrated and coherent. I find them fascinating and they almost seem to replace the need for some fanciful Spiritual Being or god in that they give the world meaning even if it is illusory. I think I have told the story before of my Brother setting out on a three month voyage to the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic near the Falkland Islands to work on the British Antarctic Survey. One of the first people he met when getting there was our next door neighbour from our small, Midlands village. What are the chances?
I’m sure I’ve written about one of the most extraordinary coincidences in my own experience before and I apologise if you read it. Almost 55 years ago I left my College Digs where I had been treated wonderfully by the owners – Mr & Mrs Boyd – who rented out the top floor of their house and acted almost as surrogate parents for two years. That was 1971. I didn’t see them again before I left College and the area. Fast forward 20 years and I was attending a conference in central London, rushing to get a tube train from my hotel and pushing through a crowded underground queue when who should I see but Mr & Mrs Boyd.
Suddenly the world becomes smaller and more integrated. Lives become increasingly interlinked and less fragmented. So it is with memories where distant times meet coincidentally. There was a school in the Oldham Authority called Fitton Hill that closed because of cost cutting 35 years ago. The teachers were re-placed around the Authority and four came to my school. I felt very sorry for them because it wasn’t a comfortable thing for them. The photo above came up in something I was reading this morning joining these two times in history in my thoughts.
I didn’t know many people in this photo personally but of those I did/do know two are dead. One became a deputy Head at Hathershaw and was a well known local actor who worked with the Oldham Coliseum. One became Pauline’s Deputy, retired before us and I then found reported in a Lancashire Newspaper as having halted a Blackburn Rovers League game when he suffered a heart attack on the terraces and had to be resuscitated but later died of a second attack. Another was educated in Northern Catholic College where the monks were found to be paedophiles, subsequently separated from his wife after taking numerous lovers and then emigrated to Canada to escape the scandal.
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S.Eliot
There are two or three others – a woman who taught pottery and two men who became chain smoking peripatetic music teachers. Where are they now? How are their lives developing? Will I ever see them again? Will there be a coincidence? Do they remember me? Do they wonder how my life is going? Who knows.
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.The Four Quartets: Burnt Norton – T.S.Eliot – 1936
All I know is that I will revisit as many connections from my past as I can and the Past will become the Future, Dear Reader.
Thursday, 30th October, 2025
Quite cold last night. We went down to 5C/41F before sunrise. That’s quite cold for down here. All the outdoor tomatoes have been picked and the plants cleared away before we leave although I am still eating them and will do until I leave on Saturday. It is sunny here today but there is an edge on the air now. A month in the sunshine and the temperatures in Tenerife are forecast to hover around 27C/81F during the day and 19C/66F at night time. That’s worth a few thousand pounds, Dear Reader.
Never let it be said that I am a boring creature of habit but, this week ten years ago I was setting off for a month in …. Tenerife while we waited to move in to our new house in West Sussex. On this occasion it was in a 5* Hotel. It was great. We stayed for a second month in the January as well. We really enjoyed it but hotel living for that length of time was too ‘regimented’ for us and next time we rented our houses with pools.
And so it is. The shorter story … we are renting a duplex apartment with pool for the month. I can continue my life – walking, writing, reading, tweeting, Blogging, eating great quality home cooking, swimming without restriction, etc. …. No love, no glory.
I’ve just been to the Hairdressers. Yesterday it was to the Beauty Clinic. Neither for me, I hasten to add. I am beyond redemption. Pauline has been preparing herself for her holiday in the Canarian sun.
Friday, 31st October, 2025
A grey day befitting of the date. I’d like to say I don’t believe in ghosts any more than gods but I have so many that haunt me every day that it wouldn’t ring true. I, perhaps, am unsually haunted by the past, by my past. I see it in images however blurred and hear it in the cadences of poetry and song, in the sound of people’s voices that linger over the years and remain the same.
They knew, as I,
Those living ghosts who cannot leave their dreams,
And in years after and before their death
Return as they can, and with ghost’s pleasure search
Those several happy acres, or those rooms
Where, like unwilling moth, they collided with
The enormous flame that blinded and hurt too much.Philip Larkin – Ghosts
Mine is not a children’s Trick or Treat but recognises end of life significance and urgently researches those several happy acres, colliding with the enormous flame that hurt too much.
Talking of living ghosts who cannot leave their dreams, it is the College Reunion in a couple of weeks. I haven’t been able to bring myself to go yet. I’ve suggested they re-locate to Tenerife and my kind friend, Kev, has said that it would be a great idea. I’m still waiting to hear whether it will be worth it.
I would like at least to send them some sunshine but, before I go away, there are plenty of things to do in the Present. The automatic lights couldn’t be set before the clocks went back so that has been one job this week. I actually use more lights when away than at home but it is worth it. Then there is the ‘old people’ stuff like Repeat Prescriptions to collect and our next door neighbour has been asked to do that.
When you go away for a lengthy time, simple things like dustbins can’t be left to putrify so a trip to the local Tip is booked for today. I am going to Check-in online to our hotel at Gatwick in advance. I have contacted the Manager of the property we’ve rented to confirm that the flight is currently on time but landing might be delayed by the new Entry/Exit System for the Schengen Area.
At 3.00 am last night, I was woken by this message from Easyjet which was good of them, wasn’t it Dear Reader. We tried to anticipate this process by a quick trip to France last week but we were thwarted by the Le Shuttle not being ready for it yet. We have to hope that Tenerife isn’t either or we could be in for a long queue. Fortunately, we will have four weeks to get over it.
The need now is for sun and warmth. I run the risk of being accused unadventurous by returning to cheap and cheerful Tenerife. A month will cost us an additional £5000.00 over and above normal living expenses.
I often look at and reject alternatives – Marrakesh is warm but not the Mediterranean culture I love. Cape Verde is a possibility but it is over 6 hrs away and has crude infrastucture. Sharm el Sheikh would be a rich alternative in Egypt but, somehow, I don’t fancy it. To be honest with you, I’m not bothered about the culture. I just want to shift my life to warmer places and carry on without a fuss. The Canaries are fine for this.
Saturday, 1st November, 2025
Another day, another month, another trip. New November, Dear Reader. Enjoy! It has opened beautifully here with strong sunshine and a clear, blue sky after an incredibly warm night which hovered around 18C/65F. The nights won’t be that much warmer in Tenerife over the next month. Mind you, the days are going to be 27C/81F which is why I will be there.
The house is sparked into life as my Housekeeper charges (glides) round organising. After coffee, I am instructed to empty, clean and lay to rest my coffee maker for the next month. The fridge is being emptied of perishable items – mind you, not many were allowed to linger there over the past few days anyway. To a woman who never wastes anything, throwing away a carton of fresh orange juice and a an unopened box of grapes is a painful anathema but it has to be done.
Housekeepers plan and prepapre things to every minute detail. I must admit, it takes the pressure off me. I have just prepared all the electrical/computer items for travel and the remote security systems. That was tiring enough.
We won’t be back much before Christmas so we’ve already been facing the annual dilemma – digital or analogue, cards and newsletters or emails and Whatsapps. Of course, the former has largely won out again. There are too many people on our list who would be disappointed or nonplussed by an email so 60 cards have been purchased and stored. The newsletter will be put together in an idle moment while away and printed out in December.
So now, all that remains is to put our luggage in the car and to drive to the Gatwick Sofitel Hotel. It’s part of the Accor Hotel Group of which I am a member. We fly early tomorrow morning and the warmth begins. Of course the dilemma will only follow us. Postcards or not postcards? That is the question. I have some little friends who love them and I wouldn’t want to disappoint although most use Social Media and will stay in touch that way. I have to keep telling myself not to use emojis from abroad. EE charge me more than £1.00 a time. Nobody’s worth that, Dear Reader!
Happily settled in our room in the Sofitel – fairly modest but we’re only here for ma few hours – and I am already working out how to connect my iPad to the TV. A few glasses of wine and I couldn’t care less about anything.
We’ve used this hotel many times. It makes early flights much more relaxing.The car has a wonderful spot in Long Stay and we can forget everything for a while and concentrate on enjoyment. I just wish I could share it with you, Dear Reader.