Sunday, 27th July, 2025
A dull morning but very warm. Political programmes over Breakfast. Good to see Bob Geldof sounding off about the Israeli genocide in Gaza. It needs the unelected to speak truth to power.
I have been scanning in the past. Photographs of a lost age. That is what my life is reduced to. Phyllis’s photograph store needs to be recorded for posterity although I have no idea who will be interested in twenty years from now. All I can do is record History. It took me more than two hours this morning to scan, edit and file a life time of images.
After a couple of hours of walking, the main task this morning was harvesting herbs from the garden. My job was the hard part – stripping the Parseley. It takes for ever. I have grown flat leaved and curly parsley. The former is said to provide the better flavour but my Chef prefers the latter. It produces one Freezer Bag of herb.
Today, a field of Basil has been cut, stripped, combined with Pine Nuts, Garlic, Oliver Oil and Lemon Juice in a Blender and is now in a plastic box waiting to be portioned for freezing. It is the second cutting of Basil. It is amazing how so much greenery can be reduced to so little space. There will be at least one and, hopefully two more cuttings. It will produce more than we need for the rest of the year.
Home grown new potatoes are delicious. The final act in the garden today was to lift another 2Kgs of potatoes that will be moist and delicate cooked less than 30 mins after growing in the soil. A bit of home grown mint and perfection awaits.
Monday, 28th July, 2025
Glorious morning. Blue sky and sunshine warm and positive. A lawn mowing and edge trimming morning for me. Go to stay active.
Fly to Athens in three weeks. Although I can’t say exactly, it will be about the 80th time I will have spent time there over the past 45 years. Must be more than a year of my life. I love it more each time I go.
My brother’s wife is going on a cruise with a childhood friend. They fly into Athens a couple of days before joining the ship. I had to advise her of a hotel for their first night and, while we are there, I will produce a brief, photo guide for someone who has little time to explore. I must admit, Athens can be a culture shock on a first visit. I hope she enjoys it.
Today, I have had to replace the legacy ice cream maker that I threw out the other day. It was nearly 50 years old. Time for something new. According to the reviews, it has to be Ninja and that is what will arrive later in the week. Might even have to try a bit myself. Chef makes it with double cream and real vanilla pod seeds which makes all the difference.
Retirement is for enjoyment or it’s pointless. It is for friendship and sharing or it is meaningless. It is for travelling and learning or we might as well be in the Care Home. I’ve already changed my mind about next year. I’m determined to go back to Spain for a month or six weeks June – July. I intend to book it early to make sure. Hope I live that long, Dear Reader.
So the Diary is already coming together. Obviously, I will be in the North of Engand again to visit friends, in Greece on at least two occasions to continue the tradition and, after a month in Tenerife this Winter, the decision will be Canaries or Florida next Winter.
The garden is in its full pomp at the moment. Might even get a bit of rain tomorrow. I’ve grown lots of stuff from seed this year both flowers and vegetables. I like the challenge. I’ve grown Zinnias for the first time this year. Before, I would have been hard pressed to identify them at all but I’m really pleased with the result.
Here is my favourite plant of the moment – a Houttuynia commonly know as the Harlequin Plant and the Zinnias are rising up behind it in a lovely echo of the colours. I shall try this again …. if I’m still alive.
Tuesday, 29th July, 2025
Warm, grey and overcast. Hoping for rain but it’s not looking too promising. The morning is at home today anyway. The Local Authority are coming to collect the old washing machine. Charge just £25.00. (Bargain!) We have a Tiler coming to re-grout one of the shower rooms.
After nearly 10 years, we have decided to replace the ovens. They are working perfectly but the grill element in the upper oven is a bit iffy. It would cost £150.00 to repair. A completely new replacement would only cost £550.00. Easy decision. A new one will be most cost effective and will do another 10 years. I will be 84, Dear Reader! I will start researching a new one for 2035.
Might have spoken too soon. No sooner than I’d suggested a new oven but my Housekeeper took advantage and started looking for an upgrade. Sounds expensive and I may live to regret it. It’s gone up to £750.00. Still, you only live once. No point in compromising. With installation and removal of the old one, the cost is £800.00 but at least it will be done.
I have to wish my World Champion Distance Runner sister, Jane BG, happy 73rd birthday. As I pointed out to her this morning, she has great legs for a 73 year old. Just wish she’d wash more often.
Of course, my legs are cleaner and older if not fitter. As you can see here, Jane’s thinner than my oven. Not sure she can cook as well. Actually, I’m not sure she can cook at all which is probably why she runs fast.
Done my 8 mile walk while our Tiler, who is actually a multi-skilled Project Manager and is being prepared for a series of jobs in our house, is working upstairs. He is local and can be trusted with a key. This morning we have been discussing with him an extension to the Kitchen. Who knows whether it will happen. Perhaps we’ll have an Orangery. They used to be all the rage you know. After 10 years, we need lots of renewal. He could be useful and seems to have the skills.
Our next door neighbour has invited us to a BBQ. It is in aid of a birthday but it is unlikely that we will be attending. We are going up to Surrey to say goodbye to M&K before they return to Forida and we fly off to Athens.
Was feeling emotional this afternoon as I reflected on my life and the sadness of life gone by. The combination of Sheeran & Bocelli reduced me to tears. I am a sad character.
Wednesday, 30th July, 2025
Was woken up at 4.30 am … by the washing machine phoning me to say it had finished washing and needed emptying. I resisted speaking to it but struggled to get back to sleep. Resolved to look at the smart control app and tone down the notifications.
It’s funny, I was talking to an old man the other day who couldn’t understand why you would bother controlling white goods remotely. I have a love of automation and the need to embrace the future. I have chosen to have the Laundry machines run by AI and made controllable from anywhere in the world …. just because I can but Artificial Intelligence mode solves so many problems of having to choose the correct program, duration, material and so on because it does it for you. I have never used a washing machine until now. Suddenly, I’m enjoying the challenge.
I run so many things around our house using a multitude of apps on my phone. The SmartThings app runs the Laundry machines and the Robot Vacuums. Hive runs the Downstairs Heating and the Upstairs Heating independently and the hot water. It switches on the lights around the house automatically and on a timer if I program it. It controls the garden lights, the exercise equipment in the Gym and the Radiator and Fan in the Gym as well. The Climate app controls the air conditioning in the house even though it is rarely more than a metre from me. Govee alerts me to the temperature in the Gym so I know when to turn on the heating or the cooling out there.
Groomtribe monitors and advises me on my shaving each morning. Alexa controls the smart speakers around the inside of the house and DMSS controls the CCTV cameras around the outside of the house. At some stage, I am going to have to bring all these functions under one controller but that is not available yet.
My Carer works out with dumbells every morning because she is obsessed with wrinkly arms. I keep telling her that it’s not important and I know lots of women much more wrinkly than her but it doesn’t seem to pacify her and it’s not just arms. I catch her stretching and she slightly uncomfortably says, I’ve got to get rid of my elephant knees. or My hands are beginning to look like my Mum’s. Everything of me is beginning to look like my Mum but I’ve given up fighting it.
Anyway, wrinkles are the new sexy, aren’t they Dear Reader. Well, that’s what I tell her as she works away to keep wrinkles at bay. My way to keep them at bay is to work. I’ve set the Under Gardener on Hedge Trimming while I edge the grass verges, clear the curbstones of weeds and generally keep the street tidy. Of course, when it comes to sweeping up Hedge trimmings, I am the under gardener to the under gardener. It’s so hot and humid I am wet from my exertions if that isn’t too much information. At 5.00 pm, we are seeing 27C/81F. It feels hotter because of the humidity – enough to wrinkle anyone!
Thursday, 31st July, 2025
July is going out on a warm and humid day with heavy rain forecast. Please let it be so. Gatwick is only 33 miles away and it is raining heavily already. Really hope it knows which direction to blow down to us.
A week ago, I bought £20,000.00 of Premium Bonds. My reasons included the fact that I needed a place for Easy Access cash and the fact that it is tax-free is a bonus. Of course, I could get 4% + in a conventional account but tax would immediately reduce that and Premium Bonds are predicated on an average yield of 3.8%. That is the payout each month across the piece. Of course, it’s not guaranteed for any individual investor but I’m intending to be a ‘lucky one’. The first draw in which I will be included is September and I will keep you updated over a 12 month period to see if I make the 3.8% target. It should make the princely sum of £760.00 tax free. We will see.
Who’d have thought that washing clothes could be so much fun. I’m washing Colours this morning. Well, my Artificially Intelligent friend is. I’m doing it remotely by phone from my Office. What I love about it other than the IT challenge is the fact that the whole process is silent. You can’t tell the machines are on at all. It won’t disturb the cricket. I’m doing towels next. Pray for me, Dear Reader.
For years I collected, had framed and displayed Victorian art in my homes. I came to it from a Left Wing perspective particularly through the socialism of William Morris and John Ruskin but eventually found myself absorbed by the most unlikely images of Frederick Lord Leighton and Lawrence Alma Tadema.
When I get something, I don’t compromise. I go full in and so it was with the paintings. I had framed huge prints all over the houses. I even had them in my Greek home. Eventually, when we moved to a new-build house in the South, I gave them to a Hospice charity who sold them all off individually for quite a bit of cash.
This week, an exhibition at the G.F. Watts Gallery in Surrey was advertised and I was about to make a note before suddenly realising that time for me has gone. I really have moved on and need something new. Looking for suggestions, Dear Reader.
Well, it’s 1.00 pm and no sign of the rain. I’m going to be furious if we’re deprived again. My Housekeeper is continuing her quest to harvest and process all the herbs in the garden. Today it is Mint and Tarragon. She is also making Strawberry Jam and preparing to make ice cream when the machine is delivered this afternoon. At the same time, she is using/learning her new Laundry machines. It’s all go. I’m going in the Gym although it is so hot outside, it won’t be comfortable.
Praise be to the Fates. The Rain has come in torrents. I got soaked but at last I am clean. I won’t have to water for a few days and the green of the grass will return for a while. The Test Match has been sporadic because of rain but England are securing their lead and are likely to win the Series. Rain does so much!
Friday, 1st August, 2025
August 2025 …. already. Happy new month, Dear Reader, even though your Life is running away. Unfortunately, so is mine. My 74th August is going to be a good one. Optimism is important.
When we are young, optimism is the default position. We believe we can do anything and certainly better than our previous generations. We don’t consider death. That is something so far off, it’s not worth contemplating. Actually, we believe we will live forever. We can abuse our bodies because there is plenty of time to pull back. We don’t need to save money. There is a lifetime to get into that.
It’s hard to know when the pivotal point is reached and we start to view the Future as shorter than the past. I suspect it was in my early 50s. As a young man, I always pledged to not fall into some of those old person cliches one so regularly hears:
- You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
- I’m too old to learn computers.
- I’ll leave my kids to cope with smartphones. They’re beyond me.
- Thank goodness I’ll be dead before that happens.
- It was simple in my day.
I like to think I have retained my optimism as long as possible although cancer does bring you up short. This morning, the news was full of items about Heathrow expansion and a new runway at Gatwick. I welcome it but realise I will be 84 before they are in action. Will I still be fit? Will I still be travelling? It is like so many of these things. I long to see all the technological advances over the next 50 years and force myself to get to grips with them. I’ll be happy just to see the introduction of Dementia-beating drugs which will be in use over the next 7 or 8 years.
This morning, I caught myself in optimistic mode as a delivery arrived from Amazon. I love my shaver. It is a Philips Series 7000. I’ve had it two years. Philips advise changing the heads every two years and I got my technician to do that for me this week because she has smaller hands. I immediately ordered replacement heads and put in my online calendar for July 2027 an entry reminder to change my shaver heads. The shaver has an automatic cleaning program which entails putting it headfirst into a pot which contains cleaning fluid and then telling it via my smartphone app to run the program. It takes 60 secs. Each pot does a month. Today, I received 6 more pots.
My wife pointed out that I’m not only expecting my shaver to last another two years but expecting myself to manage six more months as well. She’s a delightful old woman!
Saturday, 2nd August, 2025
By the start of August, nature is rampant. Full blown. Blousy! As a typical male approach, I want to control nature. I plant vegetables in straight lines. I cut back edges of grass and impose my idea on it not what it wants to do naturally – grow. I dead head flowers every morning to encourage continued flowering instead of allowing the plants to do what they want – produce seed and perpetuate the next generation. All around the area, gardeners have been doing the same thing – trimming, edging, pruning, etc.
By August, Nature is really fighting back. It is screaming Let me go. Let me procreate, Let me Live. The job of controlling growth within defined boundaries is becoming too time consuming and, of course, even we want the fruits of their loins. We live in an area that is built on former Horticultural sites. Salad Vegetables and Herbs were grown in vast areas of glasshouses. Fruit was grown in huge tracts of orchards. This apple tree is growing wild amid the hedgerow on Orchard Road that I go down on my walk each day. The orchards have gone and given way to housing but Nature has found a way to reassert itself and perpetuate the species – not in the straight rows of human planted orchard trees but the chaotic and haphazard hedgerows.
It seems Humans have an innate desire – need even – to control their environment, their world. I wonder what you think about the Online Safety law that has kicked in this week. It was proposed and drafted by the Tory government under Theresa May but it has only just become law this week. We are told it is intended to keep children safe from undesirable web content – sex and suicide. Few people would not want to protect their kids but it has a lot of unintended consequences – if they are unintended.
The sites that the government designate unsafe require age certification. This can be done by supplying credit card details, passport copies, etc.. Would you supply those, Dear Reader? Is supplying your identity-specific to unknown content providers safe? Is the reasoning behind the process acceptable and can it be manipulated by future governments? You see, the Authoritarian Chinese State does exactly this. It blocks what it sees as decadent Western ideology on the web. The Russians, the Iranians Islamist Leadership, the Afghan Taliban do the same. It is essentially Authoritarian.
It is typical, common control of the extreme Right and the extreme Left which exhibits this need to block alternative views. When I developed an intranet platform in school, a parent complained that his son had accessed pornography through the net. I bought website-blocking software to prevent it happening again. The kids were as furious as if I’d stopped them going behind the bikesheds to experiment. Within a week they’d found a way around it and I was back to square one. In just the same way now, I can get round this mediocre attempt at control by telling the web I am in Albania via a cheap VPN which also allows me to tell the web I am in London when actually I am in Europe so I can access UK media.
They won’t win but they keep trying and it is our responsibility to resist. I’m sorry if this Blog post is a bit too long today but this is important. Farage, who is more of a joke than a threat, suddenly has some traction in the democratic world. We had the hilarious occurence of Farage trying to silence a Democratic Senator who was attending a Free Speech conference and not seeing the irony in it. Imagine if Farage got into power and how he would use this media control.
Well you don’t have to imagine it because we only have to look across the pond where Trump has been agitating to have the Chairman of the Federal Reserve sacked for not reducing Interest Rates even though economic data doesn’t warrant it and, today, he has reacted to a report based on accurate data collected about the Jobs Market with increased Unemployment because of his Tariff Policy by shooting the messenger – firing the Head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for reporting this trend to the nation. He called it fake information to undermine him. We are already in Orwellian territory.