Sunday, 14th September, 2025
Sad Sunday. Never been keen on them. Especially as a child, I hated them. The routine was obligatory Church Service followed by a quite formal and obligatory Sunday Lunch followed by an obligatory Family Outing either driving or walking or both. I have been encouraged throughout my adult lifetime by the decline in formal religion, the opening up of the secular and commercial world into Sundays, making it rather more of a ‘normal’ day.
Only in separation – marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these – for which was built
This special shell?Church Going – Philip Larkin, 1954
When Philip Larkin wrote his poem, Church Going, more than 70 years ago, the decline was barely under way. The title is deliberately double entendre. It implies that people are going to church while the church is leaving. And so they are although there has been an attempt to show that there is a resurgence. Recently, we have been told that Gen Z is returning to the church. I am sceptical but it has to be taken seriously.
I’ve spent a career of 40 years in Teaching telling pupils that god doesn’t exist and that they need to face reality. It is to be expected that there would be an equal and opposite reaction. The ‘Tommy Robinson‘ demonstration in London yesterday was ostensibly arguing that Britains should unite and become Christian again while beating up policemen. It always amuses/shocks me how right wing christians rarely espouse Christianity at all. I know of people who are self professed Christians but set out to hurt others in the most un-Christian way. For them, Christianity is more of a socio-politcal construct than a belief system. They use religion as a tool more than a support system.
My shadow is in need of Medical Investigation. Struggling to get the NHS to do it so we are on the verge of breaking our rules and seeking Private Health help. The nearest private hospital in Goring looks the most likely place. We are going to seek help from them. We are certainly not going to be looking for Divine Intervention or the solace of the promiscuous God Squadders.
Monday, 15th September, 2025
Happy Monday after a windy night. Warm and sunny with fast scudding clouds overhead. Out for an early walk where the debris from the night is scattered. In the park, the apple trees are scattered as wind falls.
Unfortunately, it is Bin Day and empty ones are dancing in the road. Well, it is Autumn. In fact, we are half way through September already. You can’t hold back time, Dear Reader, although a lot of us are trying to.
I get my Mobile and Broadband contracts from EE. I have two all-in smartphone contracts which allow me to use as much data, texts and phone calls as I like. I can use it in UK and right across Europe equally. Well, that’s whet I thought. Last month my bill showed one anomaly which was an extra charge for using emojis in texts from Abroad. I got my bill for this month and found another anomaly – an extra charge for phoning Athens from UK.
It feels strange because, when I asked them, they said I could have phoned London from Athens for free. I could phone Athens from Paris for free but I am charged for phoning Athens from UK. It’s not a big cost. I phoned my hotel for a couple of minutes and incurred a charge of 49p but I might have needed a much longer call and I need to find a work around. In the past it was to use Skype. I’ve eventually found a Voice Over Internet Protocol alternative called Yolla.
Out on my second walk of the day through the park and the Autumnal decaying of Nature, I came across this little chap scurrying through the tree’s debris. I photographed it with Google Lens which is an absolutely brilliant (and free) app which allows one to photograph anything and Google will identify it for you within seconds – trees, plants, birds, insects, cars, clothes, anything. Google is almost guarranteed to have a similar photograph in its image database of billions and billions of images.
Google Lens told me that it was called Calliteara pudibunda – a poisonous caterpillar which produces a poisonous moth which is pale in colour hence the name: Pale Tussock. It goes on to give more background than you could ever want. I particularly use it for identifying plants I want to grow. Well worth a look, Dear Reader … and free.
Tuesday, 16th September, 2025
Warm and sunny again but without the wind. Been out for an early walk and it is delightful to feel the sun on my limbs. While I’m walking, I’m tossing a couple of things around my head. I hate indecision and I can’t resolve these two very different but related things.
I have to pay an €800.00 deposit on a holiday rental in Spain next year. The problem is that I’m transferring money to a Spanish company’s account in a Spanish bank. There are two, basic methods I can use:
- IBAN – International Bank Account Number
- BIC / Swift – Business Identifier Code
These processes were every other day occurences when I was building in Greece but I feel so out of the the centre of this now. Maybe it is my age but I am far less confident of filing off £20,000.00 lumps of cash into the ether as I was doing most months 25 years ago.
Anyway, IBAN has done the trick this morning and the 28 night stay is secured in June-July next year. It allowed me to immediately buy return flights but this time to Alicante Airport. We loved Murcia Airport for being small and quiet and easy. Unfortunately, that scale means it has less flights from London each day and the timings just aren’t right for us next year. It will be interesting to see a new airport next year and at least it has an Executive Lounge which Murcia didn’t.
A 4 week stay in Spain will cost me £3,200.00 plus £500.00 for return flights. If I do it twice a year for 10 years, that would work out at something just under £80,000.00. This morning I received an invite from a Developer who has a small block of 8 new apartments in Torrevieja with a communal roof pool for £137,000.00. Property in Spain seems to be so cheap compared with Greece. So, while I am walking, I am tossing that around my head. Would it be cost effective? Am I too old? Would we use it enough knowing there are other places to go?
When I got home, reality bit back. A letter arrived from the Oncology Team in Worthing preparing me for my next set of Blood Tests and a CT Scan before meeting them for a Review at the end of the year. Everything is predicated on remaining alive, doesn’t it Dear Reader?
Wednesday, 17th September, 2025
Disappointingly drizzly and grey this morning. Not that warm either. Good to see we have set the scene well for Trump’s visit. Spending it preparing a guide for a girl to see as much of Athens in a two day visit. Fun but tricky. Google Maps is invaluable but I also took photos while we there in preparation.
I’ve tried to point out ways to move around the capital city, things worth seeing, places for eating and shopping. There is only so much you can do in 36 hours without killing yourself.
Having visited 80 times over the past 40 years and spent the equivalent of about a year and a half living there, my advice to newcomers with little time would be to find a central cafe, order some wine and just sit and watch and listen to the world around them. There is no better way to experience Athens than this.
Won’t be long before we can Check-in on line for our next trip to Tenerife. If the weather continues like this, I will be desperate for warm sunshine by then. First, however, we have some medical issues to sort out. My shadow is still not completely well and we are expecting further investigations. I’ve got my Oncology Review coming up at the end of the year and have to have blood tests for PSA and Testosterone plus a full body scan. They have just contacted me about it.
Thursday, 18th September, 2025
Very warm, grey day when the news is interesting. Today, the Bank of England held interest rates steady at 4% when there was clamour for a reduction and America had prefigured it by reducing their rate under pressure from Trump.
It may not mean much to the masses but it would if they realised its significance. We affluent oldies will gain. We don’t borrow money and pay interest. We tend to invest money and receive interest. Inflation attacks us and we need interest to counterbalance that. Inflation informs our pensions which we have no way to influence.
Triple Lock State Pensions will be uprated by Average Earnings at 4.7%. Teachers Pensions will be uprated by Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is predicted to be 4.0% for September. These are important factors for we poor people. It is important that Pensioners keep up with developing earnings in the real world.
Of course, for we poor Teacher pensioners, it’s equally important to maintain our position. After all, we’ve got our travel to pay for. We have a Juke to insure. Prices are rising and our pensions must rise with them. Fortunately, that’s what Teachers’ Pensions do. Index Linking is part of the gold plating we received to compensate for low salaries.
In these politically uncertain times, Keir Starmer has managed a wonderful American visit reaping £Billions in inward investment. I just hope I live to see the rewards. He is under pressure from his base and Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester Mayor and King across the Water, is being touted as an alternative with stronger left wing credentials. We will see.
If the unsophisticated, uncultured Northerners feel strongly enough maybe his case will be advanced. If Starmer produces the goods, maybe we will stick with the cultured intelligentsia from Highgate. I’m hoping Starmer can make it but Burnham would be an acceptable alternative.
Talking of sophistication, my sister in law is making her first trip to Athens as a prelude to a Mediterranean cruise. I was tasked to find her a hotel for a couple of nights and suggest how she might spend a couple of days exploring. For me, it was quite fun condensing over 40 years of experience into a few pages. I managed to produce a quick guide and fired it off today just as they were setting out for Croatia – which we are told is at an early Greek stage of development.
Friday, 19th September, 2025
Happy Hair Day Friday, Dear Reader. I am home alone and my wife has gone to the hairdressers again. She seems to go a bit more frequently these days. Probably trying too hard. Her hair has hardly changed over the past 50 years although it has always been fine, it is perhaps a little thinner now. Still, at £75.00 a go, it’s cheap compared with the old, Sassoon days in Manchester. I haven’t chauffeured her because I drank wine last night and she has a 9.00 am appointment.
I am outside mowing everyone’s lawns. Summer is well and truly back with blue skies, strong sunshine aand 25C/77F of joyous warmth. The birds are really confused. My huge crop of cherry tomatoes are taking every opportunity to ripen and the grass is green and luscious.
It’s always touch and go with outdoor tomatoes and we are usually left with lots of green ones at the end of the season.This year will be better than most but the slugs are really feasting on them as well.
I remember the ritual at home as a child when the country had just emerged from wartime economy and Dig for Victory movements. We grew large proportions of our household vegetables in our own garden with a waste-not-want-not theme. Mum always ended up making Green Tomato Chutney but I don’t know who ate it. I didn’t.
The end of the season and my mower is showing its age. Over five years old and bought in a time when I had real grass. Now I just do public areas. Will I buy another? The neighbours have said they will club together to buy me a sit-on tractor but that would defeat the fitness effort. Still shelling out £500.00 to help the neighbours feels a bit extreme.
Conversation today has turned to see places that we think we should. Destinations like Venice, Florence, Parma and Bologna were great but we haven’t been to Rome and feel we should. Just a short break of about 4 days would be enough to taste and decide if it merits a longer return.
And Madrid has rave reviews from our friends. Now we have got the Spanish vibe, a few days there and/or Barcelona would be a good thing to do. My 75 birthday in April could be the perfect opportunity/excuse. I think I fancy Barcelona. Any tips, Dear Reader?
Saturday, 20th September, 2025
A very warm but rather grey morning. Every morning starts at 5.45 am with Alexa announcing the time and playing BBC Radio 4. At that time, it is Farming Today. Not a natural interest of mine although it can be fascinating. I remember Margaret Thatcher saying her day began with that.
This week, the theme has been Rural Services and today it was bus services. I haven’t been on a bus for years other than the Long Stay Car Park Shuttle bus at the airport. I drive past people here standing at bus stops and I want to give them a lift. I can’t bear seeing people standing in the cold and wet for hours just because they can’t afford a car. Other than that, I didn’t think about it much until elderly relatives lost the use of their car and found bus services were appalling. They had to rely on taxis just to go to the doctors/dentist at a cost of £9.00 each way.
Down here, we have a Coastliner bus service that links Brighton & Portsmouth and many places in between. One goes every 20 minutes and a day ticket of unlimited travel costs £8.50. However, we would have to walk quite a way to a bus stop and getting anywhere would mean visiting many other places we didn’t want in between. It would be long winded and tiring. I certainly wouldn’t choose it.
This morning, I felt myself really moved by a girl in Hull who couldn’t afford a car. She said she couldn’t even afford the lessons to learn to drive a car and she had to travel from a rural village to Hull to work. The bus was infrequent and, when she finished her shift at 5.30 pm, she had to wait for the next bus which wasn’t until 7.10 pm. Totally unacceptable after a hard day’s work but what could she do? I tried to put myself in that situation and it upset me.
Despite a Labour Government reinstituting subsidies for bus companies to hold down fares it hasn’t encouraged the increase in services so working people can go about their lives. The problem is where to find the money. There just isn’t any to spare.
My eye sight has never been good and it has got marginally worse over the years. Although I am no longer Type 2 Diabetic, I still have Diabetic Retinopathy Eye Screen invitations twice a year at the local hospital. I take them up because my eyesight is so important. I can’t imagine what it woud be like to lose my driving licence because of my sight. My letter arrived this morning.
The day has turned out to be another lovely one. We got some sunshine and 22C/70F of warmth. My Gardener cut the hedge for one of the last cuts this year – well until we return from travels in December. Looking forward to seeing friends in the North and then sunning myself in the Canarian warmth for a month.
Home made pizzas for Supper tonight while watching Man.Utd. v Chelsea. Pauline’s made the dough. I’ve chosen the toppings. I want a Margharita and a Seafood one. That is prepared. The pizzas are in the ovens and take just 6 minutes at 300C. Absolutely gorgeous! And Man. Utd. won.