Sunday, 20th September, 2026
Another lovely day which started rather grey but soon blossomed. The sky is now bright and the sun is out. I am going to be spending a good proportion of it outside in shorts and tee shirt absorbing the Vitamin D. Just 6 weeks to go before I fly to Tenerife and I’m hoping to remain in these clothes (or clean replacements) until I return in December. The challenges will be maintaining that over a trip to central London where we are having comprehensive Health Checks and a trip to the North where it can be cold.
Cooking is going on outside today as well. Chicken stock is being made where the smells can dissipate in the breeze. Bolognese Sauce is being made for portioning up and freezing – not to be eaten with pasta but in stuffed peppers and stuffed tomatoes over the weeks. Final crops and storage of herbs is taking place over the next few days.
The kitchen is full of machinery but one area attracted my interest particularly. A Kenwood Chef has featured in food production since I got married in 1978. It mixes cakes, kneeds bread dough, whisks cream, chops herbs, minces meat and stuffs sausages.
Today, steak is being minced to make the sauce. Non of this supermarket minced beef rubbish according to chef. She likes to start from first priciples and with assured quality ingredients. I don’t take part in that. The meals are always wonderful. The Kenwood machine featured here was bought in 1978 and has now been replaced with a new one but one that still uses all the original tools.
What caught my eye this morning was a bag – a simple bag made of light mushroom coloured corduroy. It was made in 1978 out of some spare material to contain all the Kenwood’s tools and parts. But it wasn’t just the bag that took me back. The cloth was bought from Huddersfield Market to make curtains for two, poor teachers. It also made cushion covers on settees in the Lounge and a draught excluder at the front door. And here it is almost 50 years later. The rabbit hole of time and memory remains open.
Monday, 21st September, 2026
The Summer continues. Clear blue sky and gorgeous sunshine. Walking by the waves will be a joy today. I am gradually trying to increase my efforts without letting it dominate my day. When I was doing 10 miles a day, it was taking up too much of my time. I actually got complaints from my wife. It’s alright when you can slip into Size 10 jeans all your life without them touching the sides but I am not one those. I have to work at it.
This guy featured in the newspapers this morning. I will never be him. I could live to 100 and not enjoy or be good at running. Walking is enough for me these days which is just as well. I can’t afford joint problems caused by pounding the pavements now. I am currently walking just over 6 miles per day / 45 miles per week which works out at around 180 miles a month. I think I am easily doing the NHS guidelines.
I am managing 7 times the guidelines of walking a marathon a month. I am trying to build up to 8 miles per day and to maintain that every day. I will never now go back to the two year spell when I walked 7,300 miles because I just couldn’t let go. I find letting go very difficult.
I was amused to see William Shatner/Captain Startrek feature in the newspapers this morning. At the age of 90, he has started a rock band. We all hate to give up the things we love and why should we? Some people love the limelight.
This is what I see on my walk although most of the older people looked dressed for Winter. They’ve probably never known Northern temperatures. I try to be always in Summer clothes. Yesterday, it was 24C/75F and today 25C/77F. These ‘Indian Summers’ are delightful.
Tuesday, 22nd September, 2026
Wall to wall sunshine again today. Looking forward it, sad, old man that I am. Looks like I’ll be outside for most of the day which will do me good.
Tomorrow is a the Birthday of a litle girl from my past. She was always known by me as Little Viv and she is Italian. I’ve always loved little people. They bring out the tender in me. She was the Head of Reprographics in my school for 30 years. I refer to her as a girl because of her size rather than her age. Tomorrow is her 72nd birthday.
Who sends actual cards these days? Little Viv is in the digital age and uses Whatsapp and email. I decided to make a digital birthday card for her to put on Whatsapp. To make it personal, I wanted to include a picture of her. The only recent one I have is from last Christmas and it is terrible quality.
The world is full of Artificial Intelligence, isn’t it Dear Reader. Fears of AI are the big news of the month. Of course, there are real justifications to that fear but we can’t uninvent it now just like the internet or the car. We have to use it to our benefit. I use it all the time in relatively minor ways to do jobs that would take me hours and days but it completes in minutes. How to extract Little Viv from this photo to use her elsewhere. Normally, it takes a lot of work. My AI platform, MS CoPilot, took just 90 secs not only to clear the complicated clutter of her background but to also enhance the quality of her image.
So now to put her into a graphic to celebrate her birthday. She loves the countryside, red wine and her cats. I asked MS CoPilot to create a card with those guidelines. I could have done this myself although I’m not sure how well and certainly not in the three minutes AI took.
This is just a card front and I wanted it to look like an actual 3D card so I asked AI to produce this with a message from me.
Ok, it is a bit too saccharine and idealised but memories tend to be that way, don’t they Dear Reader. Every new invention / development has both dangers and benefits for us. This is good fun and amazingly helpful. I use AI to do my research which would normally take me days. If only it had been like this when I was working. I could have run rings round Ofsted.
Now, I use AI to research data from multiple sources which it would take me ages to do using Google. I then ask it to present that data in a variety of forms such as graphs to illustrate a point I am making. I use AI to structure the case for and against a position I am arguing which is extremely helpful because it doesn’t get emotionally involved but just argues from the facts that it can find. AI can grab from complex Office for National Statistics data and present it alongside other sources so that I can make a decision myself without all the slog of research which one might give to a secretary.
The thing to do is keep your mind open and receptive to change. I warned a couple of years ago those stuck in the analogue age that digital telephony was on its way. All landlines by the end of this year will have been converted to internet-based or VOIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol. The downside is that, if your broadband goes down, you have no phone connection. I accepted a digital landline years ago and I ditched our landline completely 18 months ago. I haven’t once missed it.
I read this yesterday and thought: Who are those 5% and how have they managed to hold on to the past for so long. Of course, it is possible that they don’t have broadband installed. Well, they will now or they’ll need to get two tin cans with a long piece of string tp communicate but I wouldn’t advise it. You definitely wouldn’t be able to share pictures.
Wednesday, 23rd September, 2026
After a starry, moonlit night, we wake to a glororious day of clear blue sky and brilliant sunshine. Today is the Autumn Equinox when day and night are of equal length with only 12 hours of sunlight. The year is all downhill from here. To celebrate the end of the pier show we went down to the pier.
On a day like today, however tawdry a pier can be at the end of its season, the bright, mediterranean light lifts the mood and the view.
In Worthing, Wednesday is Market Day when market stalls are set up down the centre of a popular, pedestrianised walk way.
There all sorts of cheap and cheerful rubbish sold from cleaning products to hats to second hand books but there are also some useful stalls like a specialist in Greek Produce and others that sell Artisan Bread (if I was eating any), Specialist Cheeses (if I was eating any), Quality Meat (if I was eating any), Locally Caught Fish and Fruit & Vegetables. I went in to look for one, specific thing – fresh, Greek Figs. I love them.
Daren’t tell you how much these cost but I would have paid any price. They are Greek Sun sealed in a magnificently sweet fruit. And they are quite moving.
At mid day, the temperature has reached 25C/77F (Athens is 22C/70F) which is lovely as we anticipate the end of Summer. People in town are in beachwear, sitting on benches soaking up the rays. These bonus days are a time to really enjoy because they are unexpected. Soon, I am going to be living with a 75 year old so I am making the most of her youth while it remains.