Sunday, 4th October, 2026
Blue sky, strong sunshine, lovely, optimistic day. Going down to the beach after the political debates of the morning round.
My wife is 75 tomorrow. Cards have been arriving during the past week. I am going to be married to a 75 yr old. What do you buy for a 75 yr old? I don’t know. Last week, she ordered her own present – two new pairs of boots. They are suede. I hate suede. Anyway, I’m not going to wear them.
Suddenly at 5.00 pm last night, I had a brainwave. She has been talking about two things recently: new earbuds which don’t make her eardrums sore and which she can wear for a few hours on the plane listening to a film and is determined to learn Spanish. Being the genius that I am, my brainwave found the perfect present – earbuds that don’t go in your ear and that will help with the language problem.
These earbuds loop gently over the back of the ear and sit on the opening of the ear but still erradicate all outside sound and don’t leak the earbuds’ sound. They can be worn for a 4hr flight without any discomfort. We have a 4hr.35 mins flight to Tenerife to test them out.
Face-to-face translation: You speak one language, the other person speaks another, and translations are delivered through the app and earbuds.
Real-time listening translation: Useful for lectures, presentations, or conversations where you mainly need to listen and hear translated audio through the earbuds.
Support for 100 languages via the Soundcore app.
But what I like is the integration of AI with the app which controls the buds. support real-time AI language translation through the Soundcore app on her smartphone. When we go to Spain for 6 weeks next Summer, I hope she will have learnt enough to get by but also be able to use the earbuds to back up her new knowldge. Of course, I will be marking her on her progress and reporting back here.
The weather is certainly an early birthday present. You would be hard pressed to avoid the thoughts of high summer. It is October but 22C/70F and quite delicious to walk in. The tide was fully out and sea grasses fully exposed. Swimmers had to be walkers first.
Got home to go through online Checkin for our flights to Tenerife next month. Surprised to find our seats had been upgraded without our knowledge. Nice surprise. I print out Boarding Passes as well as download them to our digital wallets. Something to look forward to when this Indian Summer is long gone.
Monday, 5th October, 2026
We are 150. Unbelievable and, as I pointed out this morning, only 5 years until we are 80! Five Years? That’s only 2 cars! These are the occasions when everyone gets my obsession with age, time ….
I can’t afford cards these days so I asked Artificial Intelligence to make me one. I certainly couldn’t have done better myself. Of course most things decay over time apart from Pauline. More importantly than Pauline’s birthday, I need to get some work done on the garden lights which have been in place for just over 5 years.
Two of the sealed bulbs have blown and need replacing. I’ve told my wife to hold that thought at her age. Anyway, she’s trying out her new earbuds so she won’t hear me anyway. I’ve been hurriedly upgrading our seats on the six Easyjet flights we have booked so far for next year.
We have been able to avoid the dreaded, long, luggage conveyor belt wait anxiously looking for cases. Essentially, we avoid the cattle market of the luggage hall and go quickly back to our car. It really has improved our travelling experience – until now.
Now, in an attempt to protect the consumers and control the airlines, Europe has set in place new rules of business. For me to have seats that allow me to take a computer bag (placed under my seat), my wife to have a large handbag (placed under my seat) and both have reasonably large suitcases (in the overhead lockers), we pay a premium of around £100.00 each way. Now, everybody is going to be entitled to that facility and the chage must be factored in to the ticket price. Until now, I have had to triple check everything in my online booking because simple errors of spelling can be penalised by being charged a fortune to correct the error to not being allowed on the flight at all. The new legislation corrects this.
On a day when the news bulletins are featuring the NHS England report on rapidly rising Bowel Cancer numbers and linking it to poor diet, junk food, highly processed food – something which has been in the public domain for decades – I have agreed to take part in a Prostate Cancer Research Project from NHS England which will mean reviewing my experience with medical professionals and offering opinions for enhancement and improvement. Feels good to give something back.
Tuesday, 6th October, 2026
Woke early this to listen to a political podcast about the imploding Green Party – something which is helping Labour move to 30% voter choice which is the territory where a clear majority government could be formed.
And so it is just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is the shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky
But all the time I had this song playing in my head. It’s been playing for days and I’ve been shouting at it to go away. The cadences are haunting and insistent. Indelible. Irrefutable. Unforgettable. Do you suffer that problem, Dear Reader? I know every word.
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes ….
The almost unvarnished song by Damien Rice is featured in the 2004 romantic drama film, Closer which I watched years ago but this is the one thing that has stuck with me. Ironic really. Sometimes it is an Eliot couplet but currently it is Damien Rice’s haunting rendition of The Blower’s Daughter.
Back to the harsh realities of life. I haven’t had a mortgage since 2009 and it is a lovely feeling. We used mortage borrowing to hurt ourselves in the short term to gain the rewards in the long term. And so it was … We are reaping the rewards for 17% mortgage rates in 1980 when we borrowed and invested so much that repayments were one of our salaries each month and for years. I was paying a mortgage of differing sizes for just over 30 years – 1978 – 2009 and the relief at paying it off was matched by a genuine feeling of freedom and prosperity.
Today Gen Z are screaming about 6% mortgage rates. I know I sound like an old cumudgeon but the sacrifices the Boomer generation made for their current prosperity in age was built on a platform of relative sacrifice. Yes, we’ve been lucky with property prices growing strongly over the past 50 years but all of that came at a price.
When it comes to Science, I am really quite ignorant. I rejected Science as a school subject quite early and have struggled to gain knowledge in that area ever since. Do you know what causes tides in the sea? I have a glib and superficial answer of the sun and the moon but I don’t know what I’m talking about.
I try to do my major walk down by the beach each day. The coastguard office on the promenade has a board outside advising Air temperature, Sea temperature, High Tide time and Low Tide Time each day. I try to walk mid morning and it is amazing how quickly over a week High Tide with no beach becomes Low Tide with lots of beach and things like grass or whatever that is in the photo this morning. I decided to ask AI and this is what she told me:
Ocean tides are caused mainly by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun acting on Earth’s water.
The Main Causes
- Gravity of the Moon: The Moon is close to Earth, so its gravity pulls hard on the ocean. This pull creates a bulge of water facing the Moon, which is a high tide.
- The Opposite Bulge: A second high tide happens on the opposite side of Earth. This occurs because Earth itself is pulled toward the Moon more than the water on the far side is, creating a stretch or bulge away from the Moon.
- Gravity of the Sun: The Sun also pulls on Earth’s oceans. It is much larger than the Moon, but it is much farther away. Because of this distance, the Sun’s tidal pull is about half as strong as the Moon’s.
- Earth’s Rotation: As Earth spins, different areas move through these water bulges. Most coastal areas get two high tides and two low tides every day.
So now I know. I will look at the sea in a new light from now on. I can’t take my eyes off you. I can’t take my eyes ….
Wednesday, 7th October, 2026
I’m driving to Woking this morning. It is damp and just 16C/61F outside. The lowest palindromic temperature for some time. In fact, today is going to be the first day for 100 days that the temperature won’t reach 20C/68F. The times they are a changing ….
Dilemma, I ordered an series of things from Amazon yesterday and they have chosen to deliver them this morning. It is 8.30 am and the delivery is 7 stops away. Got to leave just after 9.00 am so it is touch and go. But you can always rely on Amazon. They arrived with 5 minutes to spare and I was on the road on time.
Just as well, the roads were like driving in the North of England in Winter. Wet, wet, wet. Standing water, clouds of road spray, darkness … ugh. After such a prolonged dry period, I was worried that lots of water would make it slippy. Actually, I was more in danger of drowning than anything although visibility was awful at times.
Of course, couldn’t let little M down. Back from Florida for just one week. It’s so hard for her having to go back there.
Having tried my wife’s new ear buds, I decided that I would have to have some myself. This is what Amazon were delivering this morning. I’ve got a flight of 4 hrs 35 mins to get through for Tenerife. It is one of the prices you have to pay for Winter warmth. Flying closer to the equator takes time. I will need to have something to watch on my iPad to get through the time.
I’ve decided to buy earbuds that I don’t have to jam in to my ear. It becomes so uncomfortable over time for sensitive people like me. These new ones just rest on the opening of the ear and loop around the back of it at the same time. I love them. Now all I have to do is find something that will hold my attention for a few hours to download to my iPad.
I’ve (we’ve) just finished a film which made me laugh so much but is the most unlikely subject. It is called Anora on Netflix and it has won 5 Oscars, the Palme D’Or and was voted one of the best films of 2024. It is about a young stripper from Brooklyn who impulsively marries the son of Russian oligarchs, but her fairy tale is threatened when his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled. The result is sad/hysterical, slapstick/romantic and just really enjoyable. Mind you, I don’t think I will be watching it on a plane.
Thursday, 8th October, 2026
Gorgeous morning. Blue Sky and lovely, warm sunshine. Makes all the difference. Not too long until I fly to the Canaries and more sunshine. I’ve just been talking to the owners of the propery we’re renting because Easyjet have moved our flight home in December until the evening. Checkout is officially 11.00 am from our property. I want to stay until mid-afternoon so I’m trying to negotiate that now. The Gatwick Long Stay Carpark had to be adjusted as well
It is a Birthday Day for two, old friends. Brian, who I got in as an Attendance Officer in my school is such a reliable friend. Ex-policeman, Drugs Squad, Fraud Squad, Murder Squad in Greater Manchester Police turned out to be great at pursuading kids to attend school. He is 79 today and still living in Shaw. Artificial Intelligence is way out of Brian’s experience but it still produced a photo card for him. He’s just phoned my to say he’s in Ilkley following up an informant I’ve given him.
At the same time, an old friend from College, Julie is 76 today. She has had a lifelong passion for cricket in general – playing and watching – and Yorkshire Cricket particularly. I found a picture of her in her cricket whites and a picture of Yorkshire Cricket from our time at College and just asked AI to put them together. It worked quite well in the end.
It was lovely to see M yesterday and she was looking lovely. She seems to be very happy with her life which is good. We revisited our old Duplex home we left 11 years ago. Three hour’s driving left me tired. I woke up tired at around 5.00 am still tired so the first half of the morning has been spent sitting in the Office getting through jobs. Later, I will go through my exercise programme including a walk by the beach.
My wife, meanwhile, is working on our resilience against future threats. Government along with many other institutions have been warning of threats to our survival from weather and war for quite some time. Warlike threats from Russia and Iran are certainly increasing and disruption of food imports which we rely on quite heavily – over 40% of our food is imported – are one way in which we need resilience. Serious advice is to store tinned/dried food ingredients to cope with some days of nothing being available. Strong weather and we are being warned of the effects of El Nino this Winter can seriously threaten electricity supplies. We have gas central heating and a gas hob but we are buying battery powered lighting instead of candles. Anyway more of that another day.
Down at the beach, warm, sunny, beautiful (and that was just me) walking was a delight. It is 6 weeks that I have been on my renewed diet and exercise routine – 42 days since I drank alcohol. I feel fine. It never really bothers me. Life just feels a little more monotone. Red wine is a joy. It is something to share and celebrate. I have told myself that I won’t drink until I fly to Spain where I’ve rented a property for 6 weeks on June 2nd 2007. That will be 9 months abstinence. Interesting to see how I feel about it then. You know what they say: Absintence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, it works for the Methodists!