Sanders Blog

Sunday, 22nd September, 2024

Once again, it rained overnight. Very warm outside and quickly brightening up. An old friend tells me it was even nice in North Wales yesterday. Amazing! We went out early to the Waste Disposal Site to get rid of some redundant electrical stuff. It was incredibly busy for early on a Sunday morning.

On to the beach for our morning walk. The warm weather had brought out lots of people, walking, paddling, swimming even though the tide was out. I just love living here.

Ten years ago, we were still in Surrey. I recorded that a local estate agent’s House Magazine had featured our Duplex Apartment but described it as a Mews Cottage. We were extremely surprised but very pleased that they had valued it at almost double the price we’d bought it at 4 years earlier. Buying new properties is always an uncertain thing but this had really paid off. We had bought in to a commuter sweetspot.

Fifteen years ago, when I was just 58, we were still in Greece and this was the view from our house looking down towards the beach. An autumnal sky looking down over the Aegean Sea is just wonderful. Good times.

Monday, 23rd September, 2024

It rained over night but was amazingly warm. Dry now in time for a walk. Going out to collect new soundbars for the TVs from Currys and doing an hour or so walking in the sunshine. First I must wish our old friend and our former Head of Reprographics, Little Viv, a Happy 70th Birthday. She is still living up in Oldham just like my friend, Lisa in Littleborough, is still working at the ‘chalk face’ more than 15 years after I left to ‘play out’. Hard to imagine all the effort she has put in while I am relaxing. At least she looks happy.

A lad who worked for me as I.T. Manager and who I really liked, sent me this photo from the morning drive to work in Oldham. It brought it all back to me and the early morning drive across the Pennines in some of the most dreaful weather one can imagine – torrential rain, white-out blizzards and gale-force winds and the occasional sunny day.

I certainly don’t miss that. It doesn’t make you want to go through all that again does it, Dear Reader.

It had rained here over night and was still a bit gloomy as we set out on our walk. The tide was as far out as it could be but the shades were of grey. Typically, as soon as we got home, the sun came out, the clouds blew away and all was like mid-summer. Very warm.

Got home and setup the sound bar on the Lounge TV. Makes an amazingly obvious difference immediately. Glad I bought it. Dialogue in films is immediately sharper and music has huge richness and complexity of tone. I chose a Bose speaker and I’m pleased I did.

Today marks the end of the first month done without alcohol. Only another 7 to go. I’ve decided not to drink wine again until May. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve ordered a case of white wines to celebrate by unpacking and racking them.

Tuesday, 24th September, 2024

Out early on a warm but grey morning for a blood test. Biannually, I have to have my blood coagulation home-testing machine cross checked with the professionals. After a 5 or more years going to hospitals each month to have it done, I bought my own machine and tested myself. I think it cost around £500.00 15 years ago but it was well worth it. Anyway, today is one of those days.

On to the beach road for our walk. Becoming addicted to this again. I’ve told you before, Dear Reader, I am an addictive personality which works for good and for ill. This is definitely for good. An hour and a half later, I feel a better person and I can justify an hour in my Office sitting still.

Had one of those lovely moments yesterday which quite shocked and surprised me. Had a phone call from Little Viv last night to thank us for our card and present for her 70^th birthday. When we speak, it invariably leads to a trawl through the names of Those we have Known. Today, she told us of a lad called Adrian who had been our Head of Music. He left our school to take a school management job in Lincolnshire and we didn’t hear much of him after that.

Viv told us today that he had retired but she wasn’t sure how old he was. I couldn’t remember so I did some research on him. I found him very quickly and that he is 63. I found that because he listed his School Year as 1979. What shocked me was that he listed his Secondary School as Abbot Beyne School. I thought, I know that name. As soon as I looked it up, I realised in was in Burton on Trent.

I went to school in Burton on Trent at the Boys Grammar School. Mum had taught Art at the Girls High School up the road. My Grandfather and my Father ( who died 59 years ago today) had both been pupils there before me. The school was founded in 1520. I started in 1962 and left in 1969. Before I left, a Secondary Modern School was built lower down the hill and, soon after I left my ancient Grammar School was closed and combined with the Secondary Modern school to form a Comprehensive. There was uproar in the Grammar community but the new school was deliberately called Abbot Beyne School to link with the history of the original Grammar School.

So, I realised that Adrian had spent 6 years working in our school. I spoke to him every day. I had no idea that he had come from my Home Town and attended another iteration of my own school. Fascinating to find. Adrian is in Australia at the moment and I’m trying to contact him.

It sounds like our new car will be delivered on Saturday. I paid for it this morning so I am reviewing what new facilities I can expect to have to learn when I start driving. One facility is a digital app called MyHonda+. It is like sitting in the car but anywhere using youir smartphone. You can:

• Lock & Unlock Car Remotely.
• Turn on the heating in the car to de-ice in advance.
• Set up the sat.nav. remotely in advance and check the full route on the map.
• Have the position where the car was parked with route to find it in new city.
• Get all the dashboard information – fuel, oil, tyres, temperature, etc on the phone remotely.
• Get vehicle car health alerts and contact Honda for dealing with them.

The car features Wing Mirrow cameras that display on the central screen a view of the street you’re turning left into before you actually get there so problems can be anticipated. It also has Adaptive Cornering Lights and Adaptive Driving Beam which causes the front headlights to tutn into the corners rather than staying straight ahead and automatically dips headlights when others are driving towards us.

The car also features Honda Sensing 360 which provides the following facilities:

• Front Cross Traffic Warning
• Lane Change Collision Mitigation
• Active Lane Change Assist
• Collision Mitigation Braking System
• Adaptive Cruise Control with Low Speed Follow

I’m a gadgets man. I love them and conquering their complexities. The more a new car has, the better for me. Going to be good fun.

Wednesday, 25th September, 2024

Woke up to a grey, drizzly morning. Still very warm. Delayed my walk for a few hours to wait for the sunshine. Drove out to Currys to collect a new TV for the Kitchen. This one had developed a bright spot which is sign of dying pixels apparently.

It is only a 43″ TV but it has been there for 8 years so is due for renewal. New one ordered at a cost of £480.00. I’m told it will need a new wall mount which I’ve bought and the fitters will install it for me because I can’t. It will be fitted this week.

Julie told me that my friend, Nigel, is 76 tomorrow. Hard to believe even though I knew he was older than me. Everyone was older than me. We were in Digs together for 2 years 1969 & 70 and then flatmates in 1971. The above photo is from then.

Nigel is a Potter. He was Head of Art in a distinguished Yorkshire school. For a while, he was a Buddhist. He was always ‘Alternative’. It made him interesting and ‘difficult’.

This photo is one he took and developed himself and sums him up completely …. better than the description, off-beat.

Thursday, 26th September, 2024

Lovely morning. Blue sky and sunshine. Taking the car out for one of its last trips. The new one will be delivered on Monday. Can we get this one up to 8,000 miles?

I quite often see the first iteration of the Honda CRV that we bought in 1997. It carried a spare wheel on the back door covered in a nice, hardcased cover. Later ones and this new one have no spare wheel at all. We just get an injection puncture kit which I’m not keen on but it does allow the car greater storage space.

There have been 7 different model redesigns since its inception 27 years ago. Although it has been a very gentle evolution, the current model is quite a long way from the first. I think we’ve had 15 CRVs now and at least one of each redesign so I am reasonably equipped to evaluate them.

Honda are big in USA and we often feel that redesigns have been heavily influenced by American tastes. They prefer a chunkier, heavier, more flashy design which doesn’t necessarily appeal to us. For example, the macho approach likes a twin exhaust pipe to give the impression that the engine is a monster of power. Our new model will have twin exhaust pipes and the oblong shaped ones that Americans seem to like. It is quite ridiculous because our emissions from a petrol/electric hybrid are far less than the model I bought in 1997. One of the two will be working and the other a dummy …. just for balance, Honda say.

My old friend, Nigel is 76 today. It is a scary number. I’ve only seen him once since 1972. To be honest, he hasn’t changed much. I have sent him this.

Friday, 27th September, 2024

Heavy rain all night has given way to a bright and warm morning. It’s possible that we will have more rain clouds scudding across the day so I will be confined to the Gym today. Got to be in for the TV fitters so it’s not a problem. At least we are not in Florida at the moment but we are thinking of M&K who are battening down the hatches just off the Florida coast as Tropical Storm Helene moves towards them.

They seem quite plegmatic about it but, then, they are so much younger. Hope they are looking after our house well. If they start to panic, we will just have to pop over and help them.

Ironically, I am looking forward to a Gym session today because I’ve got an interesting new film to watch. Set on a Greek island and filmed on Crete, Killer Heat features character actors I have enjoyed before. It’s helping me exercise and the exercise is working. My weight is seriously coming down and my fitness levels pleasingly going up. Just a matter of keeping on keeping on. I’ve now done 31 days without alcohol and I’m not missing it at all. I’ve become addicted to Tonic Water with supper instead. It is Fever-Tree Light Spanish Clementine Tonic Water. It is low in calories and a refreshing taste.

Just over twenty years ago, the build of our Greek house was coming to completion and it needed furnishing. We looked around Athens and the online Greek market and thought we would struggle to find what we wanted so we considered buying it all in UK but ….. how to get it to a little lump of rock in the middle of the Aegean Sea. There are people who drive white vans across Europe regularly and deliver goods for people but they couldn’t cope with the amount of stuff we wanted to send.

So, we decided that shipping container was the way to go. I found one that would get from Leeds to Hull Docks and on to Piraeus for about £4,000 which seemed quite a lot 20 years ago. We bought:

• 3 x double beds
• 3 x dressing tables & chairs
• A sofa bed for the Office
• A desk system, chair and bookcase
• A computer & printer
• 2 x settees + armchair
• A large coffee table & 3 tall standard lamps
• A large TV stand/cabinet + TV
• An antique wood settle
• A log burning stove
• A full, IKEA flatpack kitchen including worksurfaces
• A large set of cooking pans and utensils + white crockery
• Heavy 6ft wooden Dining table + 6 chairs
• Lots of mirrors for around the house
• 3 x Outdoor Benches + table and chairs

We tried to buy the very best quality we could afford. We were able to order all these things and have them delivered to the container in Leeds. The container was taken by lorry to King George Dock, Hull and set off on its 3 month journey to Piraeus. From there, we hired an island lorry firm to pick it up and deliver it to our house on the island.

We were still there when it arrived at the end of August. It was all packed into bedrooms for the winter. The log burning stove, a Jotul, cost £2,500 even then but we thought it a thing of beauty. When it was delivered, it was so heavy, it was left in the porch outside the front door. It was left there all winter while we were away. Finally, I got Stavros to find someone to install it and there it was situated beautifully in the Sitting Room. The baskets were from the Greek gypsies who called. The pictures were my photographs of earlier Greek times framed in Huddersfield. On this day, 15 years ago, we were retired and stayed long enough to justify putting on the underfloor heating and lighting the log burner. Delicious!

Saturday, 28th September, 2024

What a day to be alive. Warm, sunny, azure blue sky. Walking along the beach path, with the waves of the turning tide crashing on the shale and everywhere people were embracing the sunshine.

There were people paddling and shrieking as the waves hit them. There were swimmers enjoying the swell and ebb of the tide. Half naked people stretched out on the beach topping up on Autumn rays and older ones just sitting and talking in the wamth. The Whelk Stalls and Doghnut Shops were opening in anticipation of weekend crowds.

The Council are spending lots of money to improve the seafront facilities and work is just starting now. There are acres of space which are currently laid to grass and have to be mowed regularly at the moment but which is going to be developed with extra play areas, coffee shops, a swimming pool and skate park.

Two men arrived at 6.30 pm to fit the TV. They had started their working day in Kent at 5.30 am driving up to central London to do a series of jobs and then driven back through Surrey and Sussex doing more installation jobs. They installed the TV in our kitchen, had a cup of coffee and left at around 7.00 pm for Brighton to do another installation before driving an hour and a half back to Maidstone. I felt so sorry for them.

As usual, I got their Life Stories out of them before they left. The older man had been involved in High Tec. digital film development and had worked in Germany and then Norway. He spoke both languages. On a trip back to England he met a girl. She got pregnant (What is it with girls?) and they had a daughter but soon after he split with his girlfriend. He dotes on his daughter and moved back to Maidstone in Kent in order to be closer to her which is why he had such a menial job.

The younger lad – just 20 years old – had been thrown out of school in Year 11. He is autistic and has ADHD. He passed all his GCSEs after time in Special schools but like working with his hands and loved this job. The older man was his mentor. Neither had anybody to rush home to so they were happy on the road together – the odd couple of TV fitters. It’s stories like this that make me realise how lucky I’ve been.

Sunday, 15th September, 2024

After a beautiful, moonlit but mild night – and it is full moon on Wednesday – the day has opened to strong, warm sunshine. We have a week of warm sunshine in prospect which will be nice. It is lovely to be out walking by the sea each morning with sun on my skin.

Every day, I talk to people across UK and the world. I don’t know if you do this, Dear Reader, but I often entertain that old romance of wondering whether people I talk to are looking at the same moon that I am at the same time. Madness, I know but what else is lunacy?

In the warm sunshine of the morning we went walking. At 10.00 am, families were beginning to arrive at the beach and the shops were beginning to raise their shutters in the hope of making a catch. The FunFare was beginning to start up and children delivered to a few hours of fun. People were out walking their children and their dogs.

The newish Cafe-Restaurant that has opened in the last few months on the edge of the beach was packed for Breakfasts and morning coffee and to watch the sailing school out in front of the roof top viewing platform. Everywhere, people enjoying their weekend.

I valeting the car with enthusiasm. The leatherwork has never looked so healthy since I bought it. Actually, when it goes for trade-in tomorrow, I more or less know what they will offer and at which point I will push them. Honda know our car well, after all and didn’t even bother looking at it last time I traded it in. But, I have pride and it must look its best. The only real question is: which colour from a dreadful list. Actually, it can only be black. Nothing else appeals.

Monday, 16th September, 2024

The Ides of September passed already, but it seems that the Autumn has been ordered to wait. Another gorgeous morning after a lovely day on Sunday. The week is forecast to be sunny and touching 22C/70F – certainly enough to make my outdoor tomatoes finish ripening. We ate some yesterday and they were delicious. West Sussex water and West Sussex sunshine taste really special. You should try it, Dear Reader.

These cherry tomatoes were planted by me two years ago and cleared away in October 2022. On that space I have grown green beans for the past two years but in June I noticed a small tomato plant growing amongst them. Just for fun, I left it and it blossomed and fruited rather late. We have eaten a few tomatoes from it so far but it is heavily laden with nearly ripe fruit. This week’s late Summer weather may have come to the rescue.

Some time next week, all the annual plants will probably be grubbed up as colder nights switch off the plants growth instincts and they yellow and fade. Time and seasons will move on. It’s strange that the perspective of 50 years ago is so short whereas the perspective of 3 years ago feels so long. Just 3 years ago we were in Boulogne sur Mer buying fish on the Quay. That’s not unusual. We’ve been doing it for 30 years. What struck me was the fact that Covid and indoor mask wearing was still a thing and we had to have an ‘official’ Covid test in a Pharmacie in Coquelles before we were allowed back into Britain. Only 3 years ago!

So much has happened since then, hasn’t it Dear Reader. Just take a moment to review your own life over those 3 years. What were you doing on 16th September, 2021? No idea? Keep a diary or write a Blog – get a true perspective.

Out to Honda for a 2.00 pm meeting. We met the Sales Exec. we have dealt with since we came down here. In the last eight years we have bought 4 cars from him. We knew we would buy. He knew we would buy. It was all a friendly discussion about margins on our car and off the new one. Our car was immaculate and had done 7,670 miles. They will resell it for a couple of thousand pounds more than they offer us for it after polishing it up a bit more. I don’t care.

Of course, we chose black as the only acceptable colour in the range at the moment but that was OK. There is a lot of talk about people waiting weeks and months for new cars and Honda have left the UK because of Brexit. All their vehicles are made in Japan and shipped over.

Fortunately, there are 12, Black CR-V e:HEV Full Hybrid Advance in the country and one will be ready for us a week on Thursday if we hand over £53,723.11 including the trade-in. That price will include 5 years full warranty + 5 years servicing and 5 years Roadside Assistance across Europe. It will also include the transfer of the cherished number plate that we have had for about 30 years. I think this is our 15th new CRV and our 20th new Honda over the last 40 years. And I haven’t finished yet. Just love the smell of new cars.

Sunshine and 24C/75F as I drove home. No alcohol to celebrate but Chicken Stir-Fry for Supper. The world is a nice place to inhabit.

Tuesday, 17th September, 2024

The evening yesterday was like the perfect holiday weather with a glorious sunset that all the tourists have to photograph. So warm, we stayed at 24C/75F well into the evening. I love this weather. It makes me feel so relaxed although it is quite exhausting in the Gym.

As you will know, Dear Reader, our Gym was converted out of our garage. The long, wall is South facing and the sun heats the brick structure like a kiln. We’ve even had extra insulation installed to keep the Winter cold out. The heated bricks build up the temperature which is added to by sweaty bodies … well mine … and becomes extremely high.

After a warm and wonderful, moonlit night the day has opened on a lovely, sunny morning although I woke at 5.00 am. Lots to do today so going to hit the floor running.

While I was valeting the car on Sunday, two things broke. First, I broke the arm of the vacuum cleaner in my brutish delicacy. New part ordered – £30.00. Then, half way through the cleaning, the pressure washer just died. New one ordered – £180.00. That was one of the cheapest. When did pressure washers get so expensive? Going out to pick that up this morning.

The vacuum is a Shark cordless. It folds in half for storage. I don’t use it much. The fold/unfold buttons are confusing. I chose the wrong one and broke the unfold mechanism. Fortunately, lots of people do that so the replacements are readily available. That will arrive today.

Tradition has it that we pick up a new car and drive straight to France to try it out but things are different at the moment. We are on a self-improvement programme and a trip to the land of Vins et Saucisson would break our resolve. I will have to save it for a trip to the North. There is plenty of time for everything and priorities are important

Lovely down at the beach this afternoon walking up the inlet to the Marina. Warm – 22C/70F – and sunny with people swimming in the sea. There is just no stopping these small boats.

Wednesday, 18th September, 2024

Well the sun is surely sinking down
But the moon is slowly rising
So this old world must still
Be spinning round ….

Very warm night last night. I woke at 2.22 and again at 4.44. I’m only allowed to wake to identical numbers. A barmy, religious site informed me this morning that these specific runs of numbers are commonly known as Angel Numbers. Another told me those specific number runs had spiritual meaning. If you believe that you are even madder than me and that’s saying something.

Of course, we all know that the food of Angels are figs although the Greek Gods wouldn’t have sanctioned figs from their biggest enemy, Turkey. These fresh, Turkish figs are 25p per fruit in Sainsburys. In the Greengrocers a couple of miles away, they are 99p per fruit. I would pay anything for them. I must be an angel, Dear Reader, because I love them.

Down at the beach on the daily walk in gorgeous, hot sunshine, there are still a few tourists around. Cafés were open but quiet. Walkers stop to rest and stare over the incoming waves.

There is something quite joyful about walking in the sunshine with the sound of waves crashing on the beach. Relaxing, releasing and promising.

At my last Dentist checkup, I foolishly pointed out that the older I got the fewer problems I had with my teeth. The dentistry fates have intervened and I’ve had toothache for the past few days. I think a bit of amalgam has fallen out and the tooth is leaking. Hot and cold liquid immediately makes the pain flare up and I think it is reaching the nerve. I’ve given in today and made a dentist appointment for tomorrow.

Fighting through the pain, Dear Reader, I have mowed all the lawns this afternoon as I melted into a pool of sweat in 25C/77F of sweltering heat. I wonder how many more cuts it will need.

Thursday, 19th September, 2024

Our house is bounded by the sea at the front and the South Downs National Park behind. Our natural tendency is to go to the sea. The South Downs are beautiful and this photo illustrates the evening sky last night.

It was incredibly warm all night. The sunset was lovely and the moonlight was fantastic. You missed a treat, Dear Reader.

We’ve got a couple more days of sunshine and hot temperatures but we can’t take advantage of it today because we both have appointments. Pauline has a hospital scan this morning and I have a vist to the Dentist this afternoon. Pauline’s is much more important but I am the one most scared of his treatment.

First, we drove 30 mins to the delightful, seaside Hospital of Southlands in Shoreham-on-Sea. Pauline was having a couple of scans. We are so lucky down here with wonderful hospitals. Southlands has lots of parking and the hospital was deserted when Pauline walked in. Her appointment started early and she was out in no time. Unfortunately, the result was no better. As feared, she has to have an operation soon. She has another scan on Saturday.

Old people across the country scream about the loss of High Steet Bank branches mainly because they haven’t kept up with digital developments. I am only too pleased that I don’t have to join a queue in a poorly staff office waiting to do some simple financial transaction. However, although I am experienced and confident working online, there are still those knee tremblerss when I am moving relatively large amounts of money around in the ether – could it be scammed, could it be forwarded to the wrong recipient, etc? You certainly hear of cases like that. A friend once ‘lost’ £250,000.00 temporarily. The bank sent it to the wrong account. Fotunately, it was’found’ within a week or so but can you imagine living with that stress all that time.

I have savings/investment accounts with different financial institutions and I’m used to moving tens of thousands at the click of a mouse. It has never failed me. Yesterday, I was moving more than £10,000.00 from one bank to another bank in readiness for paying towards the new car. Usually it arrives within a couple of hours and always can be seen in my main bank account by the end of the day. I went to bed last night with no money arriving. I woke up at 5.45 am and … no sign of it in my account. As I drove out to the hospital at 10.00 am, a ping on my phone announced that the money had finally arrived. I could do without that tension. It was easy in the old days.

Friday, 20th September, 2024

Quite a day yesterday. We reached 27C/81F in mid afternoon. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take full enjoyment of it because it coincided with a trip to the dentist.

Thought I was going to be having a filling but an extra showed the tooth had broken internally high up to the root. No wonder I was in pain. I was told it had to come out immediately. It is nearly 20 years since I had a tooth removed and that was definitely not a pleasant experience. I was being treated by a little girl who was less than half my age and about half my height. She couldn’t get it out and eventually stood on a chair to get more leverage. That was my last Nation Health Service dentist.

Before they proceeded yesterday, they presented me with an electronic form to sign to say I would pay £225.55. That’s what hurt the most. I had 3 injections which took effect almost immediately. Testing my tooth still hurt a bit so I had another 5 injections. Then, with a slight pull, my tooth was out.

Of course, I take warfarin which is an anticogulant and the dentist was terrified I would bleed to death. As the evening went on, I did lose a lot of blood and had to sleep with towels on my pillow which are in the wash this morning but all is well. I am still alive, you will be delighted to hear, Dear Reader.

I wasn’t up to dancing last night. I’m never up to dancing come to think of it but I was sent this photo of couples dancing under the Harvest Moon outside the SeaHorse Restaurant on Brighton Pier last night.

Another lovely morning. Got to make the most of it so it is gardening time. A few more lawns to mow, flowers to dead-head and tidying up to do. It gets me out in the sunshine, exercising and making my world more presentable.

This afternoon in a steamy atmosphere of 26C/79F, we walked down the coast. I must admit I was exhausted after a couple of hours hard mowing in the morning and an hour and a half walking this afternoon has pushed me. Still, it’s all in a good cause.

Saturday, 21st September, 2024

Woke in the night to flashing lights. It was distantant lightning. No thunder. We had heavy rain for about 3 minutes and then it was gone but very hot. Lovely relaxed morning. Taking Pauline for another scan at midday. These are definitely signs of the times.

We always said we would never blame things on our age. We so often blame things – actions and opinions – on the old people around us. We try not to see it in ourselves. Suddenly I see a contemporary and realise, I am old. I was talking to a girl ex-pupil yesterday. She was 43 and complaining about getting old. Wait until you’re 73, I told her and suddenly realised that is what I am and how old it sounds.

I was talking to this young man yesterday. I shared a flat with him over 50 years ago. When I think of him, I hold the 1970s image in my head. It brings me up short to see him here. It makes me see myself. He is old as am I.

For a year, I shared a flat with Nigel, Kevin and Chris. Talking, we all have hazy memories of it. Actually, I think mine is the strongest although I sometimes think I’ve invented it. Talking to them this morning, we weren’t completely clear where we washed our clothes. Did we wash our clothes? We can’t have worn them for a year without washing … can we?

I really am creaking at the joints at the moment but forcing myself to ignore it and push on with the exercise.It is working but simple things like having a tooth removed remind me of my own frailty. I refuse to be left behind by the world and challenge myself every day to keep up with Politics & Economics, Society & Culture and with Technology. I will never say, I am too old to understand or try that. as so many old people do now about the internet or smart phones.

It is our bodies that are most likely to embarrass us first. We have noticed that as we watch films, the dialogue is so variable in its volume and diction. (You see, it makes me sound old just saying that.) I’ve decided we have to install soundbars with our TVs.

Sunday, 8th September, 2024

A nice, warm, sunny morning. A morning for a haircut. I hate haircuts because I have to sit still under a sweaty cape for so long. But I like the result so I grit my teeth and try to distract myself.

Sunday morning is politics morning. Some people stay in bed. Some actually go to church. Some say they go to church but actually stay in bed. I get up at the same time as any other day and worship at my own choice of altar. I like to watch Trevor Philips on Sunday followed by Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg so I can do that while sitting still having my hair cut.

My school was regularly In Need of Improvement or in Special Measures in the last decade of my career. The very nature of our catchement area virtually ensured that. Eventually, the Race riots in Oldham in 2001 and the reflection of impoverishment of the two communities led governments to try something else. Great play was made of closing Counthill and Breezehill schools and combining (integrating the largely white, former population with the largely Asian heritage, latter population under one roof of a brand new Academy.

Waterhead Academy was built at the cost of a mere £25 million and was widely seen as a ‘brave experiment’. It was featured in a BBC documentary. It was written about in the national press. It was shouted about by its new Management but, ultimately, it was doomed to bump along the bottom and that is exactly what has happened. It has been in and out of Inadequate / In Need of Improvement / Satisfactory (Not) and so on. And so the merry-go-round continues.

Instead of really acknowledging the true causes, another Educational Trust will take it on and it will fail again. Poverty engendering hopelessness, lack of ambition engendered by decades of hopelessness will have to be tackled first. Levelling Up was exactly the right idea but it was never anthing other than a campaign slogan and nothing/little changed. Until it does, the school will fail quietly.

Monday, 9th September, 2024

Went down to the beach this morning. Searching, searching … Soft and warm, gentle, muted colours to infinity ….

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Waters of Death – T.S. Eliot

Lovely to walk in the fresh air and without the hoards of Summer. The beachside food shops are locked up and deserted. The little train that takes people along the beach path was standing sad and empty and will soon disappear completely until next year. Clouds of birds – murmurations in the making were swarming over the sea.

Drove home to find our neighbours putting their garden furniture away for the Winter to be ressurected next Spring. Going to spend the afternoon in the Gym. I do my session every day, 7 days a week without exception. Only by building up a consistency can I force myself on days when I would rather rest. The next few months will be like that – working hard and mintaining my discipline. It has to be done.

If you’d like an economic prediction, make a mental note of this. Oil prices will plunge in the near future, amid doubts over demand from China and the US. There is likely to be global oversupply and a glut leads to a fall in price. This should lead to a drop in petrol prices and will help if the budget increases the price. If sustained, it could lead to a fall in generated heating fuel prices but that is a bit more tenuous. Certainly, it will tend towards lowering inflation.

Tuesday, 10th September, 2024

A warm, grey day again with a little on shore breeze. Lovely walking on the beach path this morning and found this old tree trunk washed up. Wonder where that floated from. Should it be repatriated to France?

Interesting experience on the way to our walk. We had to call into Currys/PCWorld. Nearly two years ago, Pauline bought a Bosch Kitchen Blender. It cost £100.00 and came with a 2yr Warranty. It was double the price of most available at the time and was bought with quality in mind. Yesterday, just within the 2yr warranty, it failed. We took it back this morning. Currys didn’t bat an eyelid when we presented the Sales Receipt printed out from the email at the time.

Because the model is no longer made, we were offered a full refund or another model of our choice. Pauline chose a KitchenAid machine which had just been reduced from £160.00 to £113.00. We had to pay £13.00 for a new machine with a 5yr warranty.

Lots of talk about Pensioners at the moment. This article appeared in The Telegraph this morning and made me think. We are both in the Teachers’ Defined Benefit Pension Scheme which is inflation linked. I worked out that we would each need around £820,000 to fund our pension in the open market which everyone else needs to do – a joint pension pot of £1.6 million. Of course, contrary to comon expectations, there is no Teachers Pension Fund. Our Pensions are paid by the Government from taxation. In that, we are very lucky.

We have never felt so comfortable. The general expectation is that a couple would require £59,000.00 a year to live comfortably in retirement. This would mean funding all the home services plus a reasonable amount of travel/holidays. We are so lucky that ours well exceeds ‘that’comfortable’ which allows us not to question our choices too closely. For example, our car is just 19 months old and has clocked a mere 7,500 miles. Honda Sales have just rung me with what is an excellent offer for a new car and I don’t need to think too hard about it. I will make an appointment to go in and discuss it with them next week. The question is whether to go for the self-charging hybrid or the plugin hybrid. Questions, questions …

I am writing all of this in the context of the announced means-testing of the Winter Fuel Allowance for Pensioners. We don’t need it. We have never needed it. We’ve taken it but tended to spend it on Food Bank contributions. The State Pension isn’t brilliant and I can’t imagine surviving on it but there are many like me don’t need top ups like Heating and Christmas Bonus. Unlike many of my contemporaries, I qualified for the New State Pension by one day. I was born on April 6th which allowed me to creep over the line whereas my younger wife gets the Old State Pension.

Earnings this year are at 4%. We will both be enjoying the Earnings uplift part of the Triple Lock – The greater of Inflation, Earnings or 2% – which has helped poor people keep afloat.

Wednesday, 11th September, 2024

Glorious day if a bit cooler than recently. Out reasonably early to walk by the sea. The sun was strong and the air was fresh but pure. I’m going to try to start my day with this routine for a while if it is dry. About an hour and a half in the sunshine really does make you feel better.

The problem is, I have to develop a control over photographs or you will get or have got utterly bored with them. Talking to our neighbours yesterday and we all said we forget we live by the sea and should walk there more often. Well I will.

I was phoned by Honda yesterday and I’ve spent a bit of time this morning getting my current car valued through online companies. It looks as though it will be around £31,000.00 trade in. It is just under 2yrs old and has only done 7,600 miles. If I buy a new one, it will cost me about £55,000.00 because I’m thinking of moving up from a self-charge hybrid to a plug-in hybrid. It will incur the extra cost of having a charging point fitted on the garage wall but it will offer quite a few additional facilities.

The new car has a self-park facility which allows the driver to just let the car line up the parking space and slot it in without intervention. It has 4 parking sensor at the front, 4 at the rear and 4 on each side. It has all-round camera coverage. Most of all, it will address the style of our day to day driving. I like long distance driving and it will do that very economically with its petrol engine. So, when I drive up to Huddersfield or over to France, I won’t need to worry about range but our day to day trips barely extend to a 15 mile round trip. This plug-in hybrid will do 50 miles just on electric charge so will be much more economical.

Thursday, 12th September, 2024

We went down to 7C/45F last night. It may be a blip but it warns us that Winter is approaching. We will soon be searching for extra warmth. I have already closedthe window vents around the house.

I was looking at a record of what I was doing on this day in 2010. I recorded that we had just 3 weeks left in our Greek house before setting off to drive home. Just two weeks into September, the weather had changed dramatically. The stifling heat had vanished and had been replaced with this scene. We actually started to switch the underfloor heating on before we set off for Patras and our drive through Italy.

The sun has risen and the world is warm again. Decided to walk by the Marina this morning – away from the sea and the path we normally take. We should all take different paths at times, shouldn’t we Dear Reader.

Boats are being packed up and moored for the winter. Old people are out in warm clothes against the breeze whereas I am uncompromisingly wearing shorts and teeshirt to get as much sun to my body as possible.

I am strictly controlling my food intake, not touching alcohol, upping my exercise routine, trying to make an effort. I have lost 15 lbs. When I’m not drinking wine, I am buying and storing it to make myself feel better. Receiving a delivery of choice red wines this afternoon. Another light at the end of the the disciplinary tunnel.

Friday, 13th September, 2024

Gorgeous morning. Lovely, strong sunshine for Friday the 13th! Glad I didn’t choose today to have my hair cut. Shopping day today. Went down to a branch of GrapeTree for health foods to construct the morning’s Museli. (What am I saying??) On to Sainsbury for the weekly shop. Had a row with a man whose wife was talking on her phone while blocking the escalator. Didn’t hit him … or her.

I don’t know why but I am fascinated by research and, particularly, people search, their lives and events. I have always been like that. I enjoy programmes like Who Do You Think You Are and Long Lost Family even though I find them quite an emotional watch. I was gripped by the film, The Magdalene Sisters particularly because it exposed the Catholic Church for what it is.

There is an innate need in us to search for those who are lost to us even if it takes decades. This week it was illustrated in a story from Royton, Oldham. A mass burial ground containing the remains of aborted and stillborn babies, other young children and some adults was found. As the reports said, people who spent more than half a century not knowing where their loved ones were buried have finally been able to visit their graves. Some were ‘paupers’ graves, some were hospital ‘disposals’. They came from a different time when lives and sentiments were cheaper.

Of course hearts are what are important. You are not human without a heart. They always fascinate me. Like car engines just tick away for thousands of miles and day after day so hearts just beat constantly from birth to death – could be 100 years. Amazing things. However, looks like there may be a problem on the male side of my family.

My Dad died of a heart attack at the age of 49. My youngest brother survived a heart attack in his 50s. I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation or irregular heart beat in my late 50s. Now my other, younger brother has had a couple of strokes. It has rather shocked me and made me redouble my fitness campaign. Bob is a fit 72 year old although I didn’t know he smoked until he told me this week. Even so, he is the last person I would have expected to suffer in this way ….. unless it is genetic. Thank goodness I gave up smoking almost exactly 40 years ago.

Scorchingly hot day in the garden this afternoon. Not unheard of in mid-September, of course, but lovely all the same.

Saturday, 14th September, 2024

What a glorious day. Burning hot sunshine and no movement of air at all. Down at the beach for my walk in shorts and teeshirt and it really is burning. Lots of others out today enjoying the warmth.

Lots of people walking but plenty on the beach, in the sea paddling, swimming, boarding. It’s like being on holiday but these days I don’t know the difference.

Home for Breakfast … well, Museli and coffee. The weather is forecast to be like this throughout the week so plenty to enjoy for a while. Also, had good news from my brother, Bob, last night. It turns out he hasn’t had any strokes as he believed and reported to me. The Consultant who he saw yesterday told him that he was suffering a form of migraine – which he has experienced throughout his working life. No headache just shimmering shapes and now blurred vision. He is allowed to drive again so is over the moon.

Was sent this mashup this morning which is destined to become a Campaign Anthem. Really worth a listen, Dear Reader.

I’m agonising over buying a new car. Against: our current car is only 19 months old and has done just 7,500 miles. It is an indulgence. For: I love new cars. Honda are offering a discount. I can afford it. Why not indulge?

Turning it over in my head today. There is lots in there and not much room for indecision. I will know the answer by Sunday evening. Tolley made an interesting comment this morning. He had come back from France and gone to Ripon for a reminisce. In spite of all he’s done in his life including living in France, he sent this photo and said,

Just popped in. Still feels like we belong here!

Isn’t life strange, we carry these things round with us in our heads all the time. They are the experiences that make us what we are.

Sunday, 1st September, 2024

Farewell to the Summer of 2004. Happy Autumn, Dear Reader. Yesterday was mainly grey and Autumnal. Ironically, today is gorgeously hot and sunny. Yesterday we just managed 22C but today we are already basking in 28C/82F under blue skies.

Had to drive out to ALDI!! where they were selling AVOCADO OIL!!! Don’t ask. I have no idea why it was necessary but there it is. At least it encouraged me to go on to the beach where parents and children were making the most of their final weekend before the new school year by swimming in the sea, eating icecreams and letting off steam.

We found no where to park because so many people had come down. To add to the crowds, a yachting regatta was in full swing as others pottered about in canoes or just swam out to get a better view. Angmering beach is a very homely place which is safe for families. There is a small Funfair Park for little kids and a few desultory ‘occasional’ shops selling finger fish food – crab meat, prawns, whelks – donuts and coffee, candyfloss and flipflops, buckets & spades, etc.

There are quite a few restaurants but they are not much good – fast food, fish & chips, a Harvester – that sort of thing. People will eat anywhere when they are in the holiday mood.

I have been talking to a number of Hotels in the past couple of days and it has been really interesting (to me) to see their responses. The general rule of thumb in commerce has been there is little gain in loyalty. People buying Insurance have log know that. Newcomers seem to get prefential rates than long term customers. I am by inclination a loyal person and my experience has been exactly the opposite.

I have bought dozens of new Honda cars since the early 1980s. I have always had good (even preferential) treatment as a customer. I have used the Electra Group Hotels while travelling in Greece and I have been rewarded by real preferential treatment from them. Nowadays, I am a Gold Card holder.

In the past couple of days, I’ve been talking to Holiday Inn Brighouse which we’ve been using for many years. We were members of their Health Club for a few years. They are members of the huge, faceless, Anglo-American IHG goup but I’ve had multi-personal dealings with the bookings girl on the Brighouse desk moving around bookings that I was not really entitled to do. They recognised our loyalties and bent the rules to help me.

Monday, 2nd September, 2024

Rain overnight and the world looks fresh and wonderful. It is warm but there are increasing signs of Autumn with brown leaves on the lawns and birds raiding berries from the bushes. Grey sky but brightening. Yesterday we peaked at an amazing 31C/88F but today we are just 20C/68F.

Nice to go down to the beach this morning. Yesterday it was very busy – hot and sunny. Today it was totally isolated other than for one, lonely detectorist trying to find the valuables lost by yesterday’s crowds.

Of course, all my Generation – The Boomers – are in the Autumn of their lives. A lot are Grandparents. I was sent a picture of Grandad Tolley on his Training Day walk this morning before kids go back tomorrow.

Not being a Grandad myself, I have dual feelings about it. Sometimes I think it would have been nice and fulfilling and, on other occasions, I wonder if I would have risen to the challenge or whether I even wanted to rise to the challenge. I suppose it would have depended on Rebecca Jane.

Got through quite a lot of Office jobs since we got back from Greece and quite a few practical ones as well. Three trips away sorted out – 2 in Europe and 1 in UK. Flu + Covid Booster jabs booked. Eye test sorted out at the hospital. Done a week of hard dieting and exercise. Found a wooden floor repairer to come and do a small restoration job on our hall flooring. Sorted out a printer sharer problem for the Office because we both need to print to the Laser Printer. Bought Pauline a present. There are not many girls who would be delighted with 3 ltrs of Kalamata Olive Oil but she is.

In order to go alcohol-free, I have been buying up the world’s supply of Perrier Sparkling Water + Fever~Tree’s Clementine Tonic Water and Shloer’s Zero ughh drink. Would never have guessed that I’d enjoy Clementine Tonic Water

Tuesday, 3rd September,2024

Rain over night but the morning is warm and sunny with cloud. Had to go out to M&S this morning to collect an order. Little Viv (so called because her name is Viv and she is little) who worked in our school had given Pauline an M&S gift voucher for her birthday and she finally got round to spending it.

No surprises that she used it to order kitchen things: an oil bottle, a new cheese grater, a pair of kitchen shears and a set of Corn on the Cob holders. Thank you Litte Viv.

M&S is just across the road from the Pier and the Wheel. It all had an end of the Summer feel to it. Tourist stalls were closed. The wheel was empty, the funfair was quiet. Bliss and it’s still warm – 22C/70F in mid morning.

Back at home, I am reading and writing, interacting with friends: Kevin & Dave, Julie & John all sharing their lives with me. It’s nice. Particularly today, the newspapers and news programmes are discussing the shift in the country’s opinions from the Express/Daily Fail view more towards mine. In the 1980s, Thatcher declared that there was no such thing as society just individuals in it. I was on the other side. Later, Theresa May criticised about the Citizens of Nowhere. I was one of them. More recently, there has been the Johnsonian National Exceptionalism and flag waving Jingoism. I was nowhere near that.

I didn’t agree with any of that and I didn’t believe the majority of the country did either. The Tories kept telling us we were wrong to the point where you begin to doubt yourself. This morning, a new study conducted over the past couple of years showed that the Tories 14 year in power had coincided with or caused a marked decline in National Pride and an increased receptivity to the idea that being British didn’t demand being born here. It certainly suggests that it was time for the Tories to crawl away and hide for a decade or so.

Wednesday, 4th September, 2024

Lovely and warm and sunny this morning. Took Pauline to yet another new Hairdressers. Her current one has had a heart attack and is unlikely to return. He will probably retire to the island of Crete. She has found a replacement after lots of agonising. It seems to have gone well. Only cost £60.00 and she’s still got some hair.

The hair dresser is on Sea Road so we went on to the beach now all those little sods with buckets & spades have been locked away at school for another year. It was beautiful and peaceful with a cormorant sleeping on a tidal post, gently lapping warm waves and the smell of the sea.

I have always been a ‘clever boy’ but lazy or, at least, a procrastinator. There is always something more enjoyable than hard work. It took me years to realise that hard work was enjoyable in itself. My Mother was shocked and furious when the Head of my Grammar School told her I would come to nothing intellectually.

When I was 18, my dreams involved sex, getting away from my mother and my suffocating village and going to university. I thought I could encapsulate them all by applying for a Literature Degree at Newcastle University or Sterling University – two institutions far enough away from the centre of England where I lived. There were going to be girls and …. no Mother.

In Grammar School, I learnt that I could achieve but I would rather play Rugby, Athletics and Bridge. I did so badly in my A Levels which I had thought would be easy and I was shocked by my rubbish grades. What to do? What to do to get away? My mother had warned me against teaching. The salary would be too low but Teacher Training seemed the next best way to get out and so I took it. I knew almost immediately that I’d sold myself short.

After completing my Probationary Year in 1973, I started to think about putting it right. Fortunately, Harold Wilson & Jennie Lee had instituted The Open University which opened in 1971. I started a Literature Degree and discovered how exciting hard work could be and that I was good at it. Teaching by day and studying by night got me through.

I did always think it was second best though. I would rather have been at Oxford reading (PPE) Philosophy, Politics & Economics but it was my own fault. Before I even finished my Degree, I noticed a Political History Masters Degree at Huddersfield. I went to speak to the professor who designed the course and started even before I had heard the result of my first Degree. It was like heaven. So demanding that I could never rest. I even took books to read and make notes on the beach in Greece.

With the indulgence of my wife and her secretarial skills, I completed my Masters. I should and would have loved to go on to do the Doctorate but life called. It would have been a self indulgence and taken another 5 years. I decided to stop because I felt vindicated. I had lanced the boil of failure. I still wonder whether I should have carried on. I hate the failures in my life and constantly try to re-address them, to put them right. I’ve actually considered reapplying to Oxford University as a 70 year old man to do PPE. Can you imagine it, Dear Reader. I can but … no. Life is too short.

I chose this topic this morning in the knowledge that I have written about it before because the students who obtained the Teaching Certificate that I received for three years playing at Training College is now being upgraded to a Degree status rather as an Oxford University B.A. graduate can buy an upgrade to an M.A. without further work. I used to feel quite cheapened by the idea but it’s amazing how age melows one … about some things.

Thursday, 5th September, 2024

Rain arrived over night. The gardens are loving it because the air is still warm. Our house is just too hot all the time. I can’t bear it. The windows are permanently open to compensate. Looks like it is the North’s turn for better weather this weekend. Might have to pop up and enjoy it.

Twenty years ago, I was diagnosed as Type 2 Diabetic. There are a number of treatments to correct that and I was prescribed drugs. I didn’t want rely on them so I began a personal journet of exercise and diet which amazed my doctor when she declared I would no longer be considered diabetic and the drugs were withdrawn. I will always be monitored as a diabetic but I manage myself completely through diet alone. When you’re a diabetic, all prescriptions are free so, long before I qualified by my age, I enjoyed that. I was given regular GP check-ups and two, hospital eye checks a year.

I was born with a condition which I now know is called Amblyopia and more commonly known as lazy eye. I have always been stupid and, at birth, my left eye was perfect while my right eye was short sighted. Guess which one I chose to be a lazy eye? So all my life I have only had the sight of one eye and been short sighted in the other.

One morning, in my early 50s, I got up, opened my newspaper and was utterly shocked to find I couldn’t read the text even with my reading glasses on. It was scary. I went immediately to the opticians who said I should urgently visit my doctor. By the time I got there, might sight and miraculously returned but that is when Type-2 was diagnosed and I was sent to see a consultant who diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation or irregular heart beat. I’ve always thought that young girl optician at Specsavers saved my life.

My checkups are now only once a year but I am always nervous. Today is my annual checkup and I have no idea what they will find but it could make the difference to my life if they see a deterioration. I could lose my driving licence. I could need an operation on the one good eye. I’m always terrified of them saying I need a cataract operation on that eye. I know they are generally safe but one slip up would leave me totally blind. So, that is the joy for the day.

Going in the Gym now where I am watching Official Secrets, a British drama film based on the case of whistleblower Katharine Gun who exposed an illegal spying operation by American and British intelligence services to gauge sentiment of and potentially blackmail United Nations diplomats tasked to vote on a resolution regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This is exactly the sort of political history based drama I like.

Back from my eye examination and blinded by eye drops and bright lights, I was overjoyed to be told that my sight was getting better. I read the entire chart without my glasses which not many people of my age can do. I will be tested again at 74 and, if all is well, put on biennial tests from then on. Lovely people and a great service. I am so lucky.

Friday, 6th September, 2024

A warm but wet day. Soft and graduated grey. The Fish Suppliers on the beach told us they had Sword Fish in so we drove down to buy a 2Kg slab to be sliced into steaks and a dozen Sea bas fillets. It is so warm that getting wet isn’t a problem … in fact, it’s almost a joy. But then I don’t have to worry about my hair.

The sea is beautiful in soft shades of muted colour. It smelled gorgeous and sounded so relaxing. Isolated and empty apart from the sea kale. It is all mine.

The whole place has a sense of sadness, slightly scruffy and deserted. The beach huts closed up for the next few months apart from a few hardy souls who are determined to get full value out of their tenancy. For me, it is sunshine I crave. Anyone got some to share?

It must be more than 40 years since we used a travel agent or a holiday brochure to book trips away. I remember the first couple of package holidays to Greece and thinking I could book much better arrangements myself. Teletext was the first source to go to.

Accomodation and travel are two, separate items and have been almost throughout our travelling life. The problem can be marrying the two elements neatly together. It has, at times, been hairy trying to gets seats on flights to match nights booked in hotels, etc. We have been forced to fly with some dodgy airlines just to get the dates. It’s all part of the fun.

Nowadays, nothing is left to choice. Hotels, villas, etc, are booked first online and then flight seats are booked to fit. There is so much more choice available. I have an account with Easyjet because we use them so often. My app on my phone does everything and automatically fills in all my personal details including my credit card so the whole thing is incredibly quick.

The flights are still all remarkably cheap. We add on an additional carry on suitcase each instead of things going in the Hold. It makes everything so much easier and quicker. None of that waiting anxiously at carousels. We add on Extra Leg Room and Priority Boarding and these are the prices:

Gatwick	Thessaloniki	2 x £55.00	£110.00
Thessaloniki	Gatwick	2 x £60.00	£120.00
Electra Palace Thessaloniki		7 Nights	£3,667.00
			£3,897.00
Gatwick	Athens	2 x £  54.00	£108.00
Athens	Gatwick	2 x £218.00	£436.00
Electra Palace Athens		7 Nights	£3,775.00
			£4,319.00

I really don’t know why the leg back from Athens is comparatively so expensive but it has always been like that. We flew almost the first ever flight on Easyjet from Athens in 1995. It is a very reliable airline.

Still, as the nights get darker earlier and the mornings get lighter later and that is all very obviously happening now, having sunshine trips in the calendar is a beacon to look forward to. There will be lots more like that to come in 2025.

Saturday, 7th September, 2024

Well nobody had pointed out that I had done my usual trick of copying across from the previous week and forgotten to upgrade to September. Thick as a brick – sorry. It really does feel like September. Warm but grey with rain over night. The garden is winding down and we are beginning to clear it.

The green beans might have one more picking in them. The herbs are being cut down to restore themselves in the Spring. Today, I’ve pulled the last of the beetroot. The carrots will be next. I’m not sure I’ll bother growing my own root vegetables again. They take up too much space and are not dynamically better than shop bought. The green beans were totally different. So much better than the supermarket ones flown from Kenya. I will definitely grow those again.

The passing of time – days, weeks, months, seasons, years – makes me rather wistful. Life is running away. Press the STOP button NOW. The whole of this Winter is going to be focussed on diet and fitness. I intend to be and I will be back to my pre-cancer condition and better. I am in the mind set. Just got to keep my focus. I think I’m going through a mid-life crisis at the age of 73.

My friend, Kevin has suggested that we buy a motorbike and sidecar. He would be happy in the sidecar being driven around. I wouldn’t. The scary thing is that I even considered it for a moment. Definitely a sign of the times. The last time I rode a motorbike was around Norway in 1968. Wonderful experience but one that is just a stretch too far to revisit.

But the past cannot be eradicated or shut out. There are so many good things, enjoyable things to retain. One of the wonderful things about buildings from an earlier age is the philosophy of pride not economy that informed their design and construction. You would not see such indulgence applied to a swimming baths building now so saving the Ripon Baths frontage is well worthwhile and that is what’s now going to happen.

When I lived in Oldham, my favourite building was the Prudential Assurance Building – a beautiful redbrick construction both in design and detail. Internally, it was indulgently lavish as befits a financial institution who wanted to display their probity in brick. Oldham, like so many Northern towns, has been impoverished for as long as I have known it. The building was deserted by the Prudential and Oldham had no cash to do anything about it. Nature has taken back the space.

Until now. Now the council have received a grant and will spend £8.6 million on turning this beautiful building into a business incubation hub. Great idea. You can always trust a Labour Council working in tandem with a Labour Government.

Sunday, 25th August, 2024

You can have too much of a good thing and that is what we found when we spent half the year in our Greek home. Yes, British weather can be awful but every day of hot sunshine can get you down. In fact, after the initial burst of heat, we quickly seek out the cooler shade. After eating two or three cooked breakfasts, just orange juice and coffee is enough.

Got to stop eating. We went out for another, wonderful Supper last night at the lovely Ella restaurant. Ella in Greek means Come On so it is an invitation or insistence to go there. We did but, because of the heat of the day, we hadn’t done enough exercise to justify it. And here we are, once again Breakfast …. UGH! Got to recommit when we go home. Less food. More exercise. No Alcohol. Must do it!

We love our hotel but Brexiters would hate its multi-national qualities. There are Greeks here, of course, and lots of Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Israelis, and a few British. This weekend, Athenians traditionally return from their island holidays where they have been trying to avoid the intense heat that has been a feature of Athens for weeks. The islands at least are cooled by sea breezes which help. The city will be noticeably busier from today.

Our walks have become more like shopping ambles in the heat. The Pharmacy (Φαρμακείο) signs all around highlight the local temperature – Here it was 37C at 11.00 am with still a bit to go.

To be honest with you, the stuff my wife looks at is all ‘tat’ but it amuses her and it is just cheap, holiday amusement. I like watching the world go by while she ‘flicks the rails’. Aren’t women strange? Men are so normal. I was reading about the cost of a middle class holiday treat in UK this morning. A trip for two parents and two children to Chester Zoo would cost £160.00 for one day’s admission which seems quite a stretch. The parents featured had a little daughter who was fascinated by fruit bats in Primary School. Chester Zoo happens to have an extensive Bat Pen but £160.00 for a Fruit Bat? I couldn’t eat a whole one!

Monday, 26th August, 2024

I won’t bore you with a weather report – no change. Out walking it is easy to see ancient, old and modern Greece all jostling for space. I featured the Ancient last week but I would like to show you this, Dear Reader. A simple domestic, village scene with the lady mopping the pavement outside her shop as others stop to chat. It really isn’t so long since Athens was just a simple village and the Greek capital was Nafplio on the Peloponnese coast.

When we were building our house on a farmer’s field, we had to have holes dug by a JCB to prove there were no ancient remains or acropolis under the soil. If they uncovered them and the authorities found out, we would have been prevented from building. Having spent £60,000.00 on the land, I panicked when I was told that. I was told not to worry because canny islanders would just rapidly cover it all over with soil and dig more holes until they got the all-clear.

In Athens, a huge, posh hotel in our Electra Group – The Electra Metropolis – was built out of the former Education Offices which had a very old, little church in front of it. In order to create a marble-clad, covered front lobby, they were forced to incorporate the church into their building. When you’ve spent time in Greece it doesn’t surprise one. We are so old that we really do remember this little church standing alone on Apollonos Street.

There is a huge wealth gap demonstrated across the city as in so many great cities and here there are many pavement beggars – often dressed in black to suggest they are widowed and alone and often cradling a grubby, tiny child to add to the sentiment. It is impossible to give to them all but people try. Within yards of the beggar you wouldn’t be surprised to see upper middle class homes like this. Expensive real estate in a world capital – cool, well constructed out of fine materials with space and comfort. Set back from the road for a little quiet and seclusion but still in the heart of the city.

Our quite grand, 5* Hotel has its entrance on a grubby, narrow back street that taxis struggle up to deliver their clientele. The fully liveried Doorman stands in 95F looking out on a hairdressers and a religious relics shop. Just 50 metres up the road is a carpark on one side and a roadside taverna on the other. This is the magic of Athens.

Tuesday, 27th August, 2024

Early breakfast. Packing. Checkout. Taxi called. Nice, new Mercedes E Class to the Airport. Athens Airport is lovely but busy and a nightmare for Business Lounges. They are in Terminals A & B but not in C where our flights depart. Consequently, we have had to go through security to Airside A slump in an Executive Lounge until our Departure Gate is announced and then dash across through Security again to Terminal C where our Gate would be. Took so much time and involved so much walking.

Now, Goldair have opened a new Executive Lounge on C side which we can use. Perfect. Relaxed there with our Laptop and iPads, a glass of orange and peace and quiet. On to Gate. Easy Boarding meant we were first on. Settled. On Time take off. On Time time landing after 3hrs 10 mins flying. No bags to collect. Shuttle Bus to Long Stay North Car Park. Our Car! Lovely to be reunited. Carpark was bathed in hot sunshine out of a cloudless sky. The car reported 25C/77F which was a nice re-entry feel.

Just under an hour’s quiet drive home. Met by Gill, our neighbour, weeding her drive. Unpacked and off to Sainsburys for essentials. There had been quite a bit of rain while we were away and the garden looked good. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with friends and relatives, Dear Reader. But now, I am bit tired. Kevin has come home from Spain this morning and has already gone to bed. Poor, old man. He just can’t take it nowadays!

Wednesday, 28th August, 2024

Travelling does make me tired. I need a holiday after that and there is so much to do. Shopping, gardening, washing, ironing, plus quite a lot of Office work, emails and Whatsapps, etc.. I’m just too tired for most of it. Woke up at 4.00 am (6.00 am (Athens) and slipped in and out of sleep until UK 6.00 am. Wasn’t going to sleep after that. We have left 37C of heat but returned to the sunny South Coast and 27C of warmth. It really is quite delightful.

I’ve just been writing to the Athens hotel to thank them for their hospitality and service. They really did go beyond expectations and I couldn’t resist re-telling the story of how we first chose their Group of Hotels which you may have heard before but which you’re now going to hear again.

We first went to the Electra Hotel, Ermou Street in 2004 at the time we were travelling to our Greek house. I had read a book while relaxing on a Greek island beach about a couple renovating a grand old house in Nafplion on the Greek Peloponnese coast. The couple were Austin Kark, Head of the BBC World Service and his wife, the children’s novelist, Nina Bawden.

They were clearly a wealthy couple and they constantly travelled back and forth to Greece to supervise the building work and source fine materials for their house. Each time, they would fly to Athens and stay either in the Electra Hotel or the Electra Palace Hotel as a base. The book inspired me to do what we subsequently achieved. We had already been travelling to Sifnos and Athens for 20 years and we bit the bullet and bought a farmer’s field, hired an architect and had a house designed.

As we went out to check on things, we stayed first in the Electra Hotel in Ermou Street and later in the Electra Palace Hotel on Nikodimou Street. It felt good to be following in their footsteps. I wanted to speak to them about our project but, unfortunately, they were caught up in the Potters Bar train crash where Kark died and Bawden was severely injured.

I thought they might like to incorporate this story into their own history and use it in the advertising brochures. Anyway, I have established a relationship with their newly appointed Guest Relationship Manager and I will be looking for special treatment next time.

While we are sweating away in 27C/81F here, my friend Kevin in Leeds is complaining about the cold having returned from Spain. Why did he return?

Thursday, 29th August, 2024

Beautiful, sunny morning. I’ve got catching-up jobs to do. I mowed all the lawns to within an inch of their lives before we went away but, with all the rain, they have grown thick and luscious. I think I’ll have that engraved on my headstone: Here lies John. He was thick and luscious. Unfortunately, it is making mowing slow and laborious but producing beautifully striped grass.

The neighbours in the street love the appearance as they drive in now with well cut grass and bright flowers in clumps under the trees. I must admit, I quite like it too. It’s brought me more into contact with people living on our street who I would never normally meet. They stop and tell me how their friends and relatives remark on how lovely the approach is as they arrive at houses.

A couple have already said I was going to increase the price of their property if they sold. Just before we went away, a man who I had never met before but who lives just round the corner came to our door with a bottle of ouzo that he had brought back from a recent trip. That was lovely of him.

It turns out he has a Greek wife and she had heard we loved Greece. We didn’t like to tell him that Ouzo is one of those things which doesn’t travel well. It tastes fantastic outside a taverna in the Greek sunshine but doesn’t quite work in grey and damp England. Still, it’s the thought that counts.

My wife is distraught. She thinks she has found areas of her face which are collapsing. I’m not surprised at her age and she has been losing weight which has that effect as well …. so I’m told. To add to her woes, I have to take her to the hospital this afternoon for a check-up and not on her face. The result is that she has to go in for a procedure which won’t be pleasant.

I spent an hour in the hospital car park which turned out to be an amazingly pleasant place this afternoon. Warm and sunny and surprisingly attractive.

To lift her spirits, we have booked two more trips to Thessaloniki and to Athens for 2025. It’s always good to have something to live for, isn’t it Dear Reader?

Friday, 30th August, 2024

Another lovely, sunny morning but make the most of it, Dear Reader, because Autumn is on its way. Officially, we have two days left of Summer 2024 but already the signs are there. Hints in the leaves on trees, flowers going over, farmers fields down here are scraped of wheat and straw ready for the stubble to be ploughed back in. The days are shortening frighteningly fast and schools go back on Tuesday.

This morning, our monthly village magazine was pushed through the door and typically echoes the season. A drive out to Sainsburys where they sell punnets of Blackberries for £3.15 are undercut by the hedgerow outside where blackberries are free in abundance to the whole world. Soon, we will be looking to ‘buy’ sunshine elsewhere.

We can’t do anything until Pauline’s medical problems are sorted out and we haven’t got a date for that yet. Even so, the Mediterranean is not really reliable enough. Two days after we left Athens, they were experiencing thunderstorms and a bad weekend of weather is forecast for Aegean.

When we were living there, we were always surprised how quickly September ushered in a complete change to the weather. The photo above was taken from our house on this day 15 years ago. We woke up to extensive sea mist which filled the port and the valley. It signalled the end of Summer and the start of uncertain Autumn.

Saturday, 3st August, 2024

After a poor night’s sleep, the morning has opened with a bit of light rain and a disappointingly grey and breezy last day of Summer. We are discussing travel arrangements as we always do when the sunshine is about to be rationed. I’ve also been talking to our hotel in Brighouse for a trip to torment our Friends in the North.

We’ve been in our house for more than 8 years and conversation has turned to what to do next. We like it here but we also like ‘new’ so the dilemma begins. The Labour Government has been elected on a manifesto of change and a manifesto to build 1.5 million houses in the first Parliament. To do this, they know they will have to upset some people – mainly the established, middle class home owners who tend to vote Tory and read the Mail/Express.

Our village really used to be a village and you can understand their sense of dislocation as the size and feel changes, We have had a great deal of house building just in the times we have been here and the villagers who have been here since the 1950s will have seen massive change. But that’s how life is. Nothing stands still.

One of the biggest (understandable) complaints down here is that the new properties are all, large, executive designs to attract those moving out of London for better value and healthier lifestyles. It has really pushed the prices up and left many locals priced out of the market. There is still lots of green space around us but long term residents are shocked by how quickly it’s disappearing. I can’t complain. My house was built on a former market garden but I understand the emotions and they are running high down here.

Sunday, 18th August, 2024

Warm but overcast start to the day. Didn’t sleep too well last night – a rather humid night which obviously spooked the seagulls. The day is at peak packing. I try to keep out of it as much as possible.

In the garden, the more you pick things, the more they are encouraged to produce. Last picking of green beans has so far brought this season’s production to around 8 kgs and the quality is excellent. Good job I like them so much but can’t eat all these before we go away. Another job for Chef – blanching and freezing beans. There will be plenty more when we return.

Tomorrow will be a long one. Time can be stretched both backward and forward. It is called Time Dilation. Einstein posited in his Theory of General Relativity that the gravity of a large mass, like Earth, warps the space and time around it. In the real world, while the standard measure of time remains consistent and precise, our perception of it is highly personal and subject to distortion. This elasticity can be attributed to a variety of factors including attention, memory, emotions, biological rhythms,and, particularly, age.

A fascinating book by Carlo Rovelli called The Order of Time starts with an interesting fact: Time passes faster in the mountains than it does at sea level. You’ll have to read to find out why although there is an article here that might speed up the process. (See what I did there?)

Monday, 19th August, 2024

Time goes on. The morning is bright and warm. M&K are flying back to Florida this morning and we wish them a safe journey. We are flying to Athens and glorious sunshine, Greek Language and People. There are just two weeks left of Summer and of UK school holidays.

Officially, tonight is full moon – a rare, Super Moon – but it was virtually there last night. If you can gaze on it tonight, do. You won’t see another one for 14 years. I hope I can still see it at the age of 87.

Back to our favourite hotel in the hubub of Athens Plaka district. Looking forward to our first real Greek Salad for a week or two. You can make it at home but it’s never the same.

Tuesday, 20th August, 2024

Athens is Athens is Athens. We get into it instantly. We have been using this 5* Hotel for 40 years. They have upgraded us to the top Suite this Summer. Our Lounge has a bottle of iced champagne and a tray of chocolates. We have been offered a ‘free’ Dinner in the new restaurant and virtually anything else that we want.

I take this in my stride while Pauline feels distinctly uncomfortable. We have girls running round after us which embarrasses Pauline but is quite normal for me, as you would expect, Dear Reader.

Kevin contacted me to ask how our trip was going. For a man of god, I rewarded him with a photo of the Metropolis Cathedral. It is an iconic symbol of the evil combination of church & state.

At 7.00 pm, the temperature is 33C/92F. We are going out for Supper in our shorts but still sweating. The contrast between the Hotel – 5* Luxury – and the roadside Taverna – rough & ready utility – couldn’t be more stark and yet that is delightful. While I am eating a lovely Supper of Sea Bream, Greek Salad, Oven Potatoes and a carafe of wine, I am watching the little children with their parents exploring the art of restaurant eating. It’s delightful and an experience I missed.

Wednesday, 21st August, 2024

Very hot night which didn’t fall below 27C/81F although the air-conditioning denied it. A super moon is all very well over Worthing Pier but it looks so much better above the Acropolis.

Went to bed early last night and slept for ever. Woke up to a beautiful morning offering hope of a lovely day.

Tea outside on the veranda with BBC Radio4 Today on my iPad and then up to the Roof Restaurant for Breakfast.

It is an International Buffet Breakfast which is biased towards Greek cuisine. A huge spread of scrambled eggs, fried eggs, boiled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, smoked salmon, cheeses, salad, 15 types of bread, croissants, pastries, cakes, crème caramel, fresh orange juice, any type of coffee you can think of …. and much more. I’ve noticed that we increasingly favour savoury things over sweet as we’ve got older. Strangely, although I love salad, I can’t imagine it for breakfast but some nationalities eat it every morning.

Newspapers and coffee back in our Suite and then I’m told I am going shopping for leather belts. The Plaka is well know for its leather work. I want a red one, a blue one and any other one that takes my eye my fellow shopper tells me. Great!

We’ve been going to this particular Leather Shop in the ancient Plaka Market area of central Athens for so long we are on first name terms with the owner, Georgios Keramidas. Our house is full of bags, sandals and, particularly, belts. And today, we have three more to take home. Pauline always has to have new holes punched in them because her waist is too small for the Greek-American market.

Thursday, 22nd August, 2024

A weird event last evening while sitting out in the totally crushing heat of the darkness on our veranda drinking coffee after returning from a restaurant Supper that included Κολοκυθοκεφτέδες. I know, you eat them every day, Dear Reader, but I have to mention them because they became the central topic of conversation.

Alright, Κολοκυθοκεφτέδες (Kolokithiakeftedes) or Courgette Balls are delicious and we have been making and eating them for years. Last night, I was contacted by members of the former students Whatsapp group asking what I was up to. I made the mistake of actually telling them.

Peter Holgate, who was on holiday in Northumberland, immediately said his garden had a glut of courgettes and would like to try making them. Chris Tolley in Leeds said they sounded good. Dave Wetherley in Bolton joined in and Kevin on holiday in Spain couldn’t avoid joining in. It suddenly struck me that five old men spread around Europe were actively discussing …. courgettes.

Life is a strange thing. At 11.00 pm last night, Pauline was being asked to dig out a recipe for Courgette Balls to supply a bunch of old men. I’ll be moving them on to Revithiakeftedes or Chickpea Balls next.

The temperature didn’t fall below 26C/79F over night and is already reaching 32C/90F just after breakfast this morning. In the Breakfast Room, people are offered a table outside overlooking the Acropolis and, of course, first time tourists leap at that experience. Very soon they learn that the air conditioned restaurant is where they need to be just to survive the meal.

Out walking today, the temperature will reach 37C/99F and everything has to be done in short bursts. Talking about short bursts, Greater Manchester had a cloud burst this morning. I was sent this view of flooding on Rochdale Road at 8.00 am just as I was retreating into the cool of our Suite.

While I was writing my Blog, I was contacting all my brothers and sisters to remind them that today is Mum’s birthday. She would have been 101. She died at 86. Those 15 years cover the whole of my retirement so far. I am having to read and write in between short bursts of walking. It is not only incredibly hot out there but, today, we reached 37C/99F which is really energy sapping. I’m having to change shirts constantly.

Friday, 23rd August, 2024

Another hot day prefaced by an terribly hot night that didn’t drop below 29C/84F which is warmer than usual. The Hotel weather screen says that we will be experiencing extremely hot days for the next three at least. Of course, in England it is Bank Holiday so the weather will be dreadful in the North at least. Strong winds and heavy rain the MEN predicts.

Here in ancient Greece, I’m feeling my age. As young ones zip everywhere oblivious to the extreme heat, I have to more consciously than ever pace myself. I am embarrassed by it.

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock – T.S. Eliot

Everywhere you go in Athens, ancient history appears integrated into modern life. Outside our hotel, ancient ruins found below the pavement aren’t dug up or covered over. They are exposed, highlighted and protected for posterity.

Around every other corner are remains of ancient buildings. Just up the road from our hotel is a large, rambling site which is slowly being cleared and restored and has been for years because Greece isn’t a rich country and doesn’t have lots of money to support this kind of action.

The site is historically so important. It holds the remains of an almost 2000 year old Library constructed for Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 132

Tonight we are enjoying the complimentary Dinner out that our hotel have offered us for being such good customers over the past 40 years. The hotel restaurant – Zohos – is new and established in the garden. It used to be a breakfast area before the Pandemic but now the menu is gorgeous.

Tell you later what I chose, Dear Reader, if you haven’t been blown away in the summer gales.

Read a sad story in the MEN yesterday that was connected to a friend, a girl who used to teach Maths in my school. I have referred to her before because her Mum and her partner, who was also a teacher in my school, have had to go into permanent Alzheimer’s Care Homes. At around that time, Julie Bamber discovered that her son’s partner had terminal cancer. That is basically what this news story focusses on.

Saturday, 24th August, 2024

A lovely evening last night. We chose to have our complimentary Dinner in the air-conditioned Dining Room rather than outside in the garden. The temperature was 32C and mosquitos were biting. The experience was interesting and enjoyable although it wasn’t a restaurant we would normally choose. It was absolutely typical Greek cooking trying too hard to be posh. The food was small portions of over intricate, over arranged, over impressively sounding dishes. If we’d been paying, it was also over priced.

All dishes were for sharing in the Mezés style. We had:

• Home-made bread with herb butter
• Mini Crab rolls (The rolls not the crabs)
• Marinated, multi-coloured Tomato & Kassos Island Goats Cheese Salad
• Baked Potato with grilled Octopus, Samphire & Tartar Sauce
• Cod Fillet Rolls with Tomato Relish, Raisins & Rosemary
• Onion Tart with Lamb Prosciutto, Almond Paste & Onion Jus
  
• Orange Cake with Fennel Ice Cream
• Walnut Parfait Sandwich with Chocolate, Rosemary & Salted Caramel Ice Cream

If you think that was a lot for two people, Mezés style is lots of small, taster amounts so it is less worrying than at first sight. It wasn’t cheap (in Greek terms) but €200.00 is not outrageous. The wine, as usual at around €50.00 a bottle of fairly average wine is too much and I wouldn’t have paid it. But, of course, I didn’t and it was a lovely reward from the hotel. In the same way, we were delighted to be upgraded in our Hotel Room. We had paid £3, 500 for a Superior Suite for the week. On arrival and because I have been a member for decades, they had upgraded us to the top level Suite which should have cost £5,500.00 for the week. A lovely start to our stay.

Isn’t time a strange concept, Dear Reader. we have been here for just 5 days and yet I was eating Dinner at 5.30 pm (UK) last night. In Greece, it was 7.30 pm and my body/mind was already attuned. This morning, I woke at my normal time 5.30 am without an alarm but in UK its was only 3.30 am so my body clock had automatically adjusted itself. What it doesn’t adjust to so readily now is the temperature. We have reached 38C/101F and I can assure you it is rather debilitating.

I have been forced to retreat to the air-conditioning of our suite to watch the South Coast once again beat United.

Sunday, 11th August, 2024

On this gloriously warm and sunny day which eventually reached a delightful 29C, my head is still dominated by that simple-minded, uncouth man I saw abusing a bus driver.

Imagine not being able to afford a simple bus fare. Imagine what that means for the other areas of your life. It has dominated my mind all night. The poverty, the paucity of life’s essentials and much else we think of essential but probably isn’t. If you can’t afford a bus fare, you probably can’t afford a mobile phone, a broadband connection, TV subscriptions – access to the outside world of information and knowledge – enough food to feel comfortable, enough power to feel warm in Winter and cool in Summer, the chance to travel and experience other cultures of other people. No wonder you explode at the stranger who you don’t understand and whose service you cannot even afford.

I wrote yesterday that it forced a tear from me when I reflected on it and yet, when I say to my wife, How lucky are we?, she says, We’ve worked hard, saved hard, invested well and now deserve our ‘good fortune’. and that is hard to deny but there is more to it than that. Some people would never get a Degree in a lifetime of effort. Some people are born into households where education, achievement, drive, determination are not qualities that are valued and passed on. Yes they can acquire them but they are certainly disadvantaged.

Foreign Home – 2009

At the age of 21, I left College penniless (although I could have asked for family backing), starting a new job for which I had to work a month in advance so I borrowed a month’s salary from my Bank and feeling quite poor but 40 years later after hard work (and I did earn two Degrees), saving and investment, I had two properties and felt as if I would never be unable to find my bus fare. Partly through luck and inheritance and partly through effort and intelligence, my life woud be secure. It could all have been so different. There but for the grace of Fate go I … Dear Reader.

The front of the Manchester Evening News illustrates this frighteningly well …

It’s a sunny Friday morning. In years gone by, the food bank in which the teenage boy, man, and woman sit in waiting for help would be quiet, with people choosing instead to enjoy a rare day of fine weather. But those times are over, as the food bank’s volunteers say summer days are just as busy as ever – and only getting busier as the cost-of-living crisis rages on.

How could it ever get to this? The last 14 years of Tory government, of austerity and preferential treatment for the elites have brought us to this socal collapse.

Monday, 12th August, 2024

Have you noticed how dark it is getting earlier now. The Winter is on its way. We didn’t fall below 22C/70F last night. Started off the night with air cooling to make the bedroom comfortable. Woke up at 2.30 am and I couldn’t feel my legs. Turned off the air cooler using an app on my phone and immediately started sweating. Anyway, this morning has rapidly shot up to 28C/82F as I have had to pay for a lovely weekend with a trip to the Hygienist. I hate the Hygienist with a passion. Turned out alright this morning.

Called in at Waitrose which is near the dentist and picked up their free paper on the way out. I was talking about class and good fortune yesterday. Well, you don’t get much more middle class than Waitrose. Their Holiday Heaven recipes include: Grilled Courgette & Nectarine Salad with Burrata.

I was about to scoff when I realised we cooked griddled courgette slices to eat with griddled Tuna Steaks last night for Supper. I wouldn’t particularly choose it with nectarine though and I’m not even completely sure what a burrata is. … I’ve just looked it up and I should have known it. Burrata is an Italian cow’s milk cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer casing is solid cheese, while the inside contains stracciatella and clotted cream, giving it an unusual, soft texture. It is a speciality of the Puglia region of southern Italy. Don’t say you don’t learn anything from the Blog, Dear Reader.

I was woken this morning as every morning at 5.45 am by my wifi/Alexa smart speaker. I turn the TV/Radio on downstairs in the kitchen by speaking to the remote handset. We go out to the dentist leaving two robot vacuum cleaners working upstairs and down. As I drive home, my phone receives confirmation of our next dental appointments and confirmation that the robots have complete their cleaning tasks. Why am I telling you all this, Dear Reader?

Well, 25 years ago, I was desperately trying to introduce IT & AI to Education in my school. It was in its infancy so the process was a struggle. It was important to automate data collection – like Pupil Registration/Attendance figures, to produce and store School -wide Attainment Data to be disseminated to LEA/Government and parents. Just this minimum required wired and wifi connections all over a huge campus along with hundreds of computers/Laptops/Handheld PDAs and dozens of printers. The cost was enormous.

The staff would need a platform on which to create, store, disseminate teaching materials to their classes and with increasing demands of the National Curriculum, the assessments they were making all the time. They would need interactive whiteboards to display their digital materials

All of this led to the demand to link home & school both for students and parents and for teachers and administrators. Initially, I created my own Intranet platform which took up huge amounts of my time to maintain. It was liked by the kids and some staff but many struggled to embrace it and it needed a more professional vehicle to really fly and we bought that in at what now seems such a cheap price of £50,000.

Because we were struggling to get good staff, I was working towards the teacherless classroom or one where large numbers of pupils could be supervised by one teacher/teaching assistant. I was doing it myself already. We were strugling to find people to staff the timetable and I volunteered to put 2 classes together – 60 x 15 year olds – who I taught IT in the Resource Centre freeing up a classroom and a teacher. I don’t like to brag but I relished the challenge and every single pupil passed all four GCSEs that comprised the IT GNVQ. It was fun but I wanted to devise online courses which could be accessed by students who would be automatically tested online, assessed online and their results reported on line to students, teachers and parents.

It was exciting, heady stuff and frustrating at times as all new things are. I didn’t get all the way there before I retired but that was 15 years ago. This morning, BBCR4 Today programme discussed the possibility of automatic learning with IT/AI in classrooms and fewer teachers. Almost 50 years ago, I did my Degree through TV and cassette with the Open University. Now, there’s a chance that the White Heat of Technology will have caught up with the School Sector.

Tuesday, 13th August, 2024

Another lovely Summer day. Driving up to sunny Surrey this morning. Should be fun. Setting off forAthens soon and, true to form, wild fires have broken out. We did more than 30 return trips to Greece in the car and I can’t remember a summer for years when wild fires didn’t break out. Greek media always makes it sound like the world is about to end and, somehow, it never does. We would drive back to Patras along the National Highway and see scorched grass on the roadside and think, What was that all about on TV? So we are a bit sceptical but we will see.

Certainly, the weather will be hot – very hot – at 36 – 38C / 97 – 101F but you should expect that in Athens in August. It’s the night time temepratures that are sticky and uncomfortable. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

When we first went to Athens in 1981 we thought it was the worst place we had ever seen. It was crowded, dirty, noisy, anarchic and rather Third World. We hated it and treated it as a necessary transition point on to an island rather than somewhere to enjoy in its own right.

Now, 43 years on and after making some 60 stays in the city, we absolutely love it. It is no longer Third World although it is noisy, crowded and a bit scruffy. We know where to go, how to access the services we need and what to say to get them. Of course, we are better off now and don’t worry that we will be ripped off. If anything, the boot is on the other foot. We are the negotiators.

Sifnos – 1984

Our island 40 years ago had no bank, no real supermarket, two external international lines to phone UK which were constantly breaking down or engaged. The hotels were basic and the food was too. But that was the challenge which kept us returning year after year until we owned a part of it ourselves. These photos of summer 1984 feature the long retired f/b Agios Georgos (St George Express) which was nowhere near an Express anything. It took around 6 hours to get us from Piraeus to Sifnos usually sitting on plastic chairs the whole way. Now you can do it in a couple of hours. On the right is the traffic chaos in Apollonia – the capital of the island which would be considered less than a village in UK and only filled up for about 6 weeks in the tourist season. It is much more organised now.

Lovely day today. We drove up to Surrey to see M&K before they return to our Florida home which we let them stay in. They are lovely, friendly, generous people and it is fascinating to see their development as they embrace Retirement. They had prepared a wonderful Lunch of grilled Salmon and Sushi. It was delightful to share it outside in the garden running down to the canal with boats going past in the sunshine.

Wednesday, 14th August, 2024

Warm but grey this morning. We’ve even had a bit of rain overnight which is wonderful. Our trip out yesterday reminded me how important adult others are in one’s life. In retirement, we can become too insular and being challenged in our views, talking to people who have other world and personal constructs in their heads is enjoyable and useful.

Blog Readers will know that I am obsessed with the past. For me, it is very important to understand the present and plan for the future but I am constantly pulled up sharp by meeing people who have little or no interest in the past at all and just believe going forward is important. My eldest sister is one who just shrugs off her past and isn’t interested when I ask for help in remembering family events. What amuses me is the fact that she wants to celebrate things like Birthdays and Anniversaries which are the essential graduations of the past but doesn’t seem to acknowlege that.

Yesterday, I was talking to K, a (fairly) intelligent, aging juvenile who also expresses little interest in the past and vows to just go forward until Dementia gets him. I am trying hard to understand it but failing completely. I use every trick in the book to maintain my links to my past. The Blog is just one small part. Our Accounts package is another historical record. Our Filing cabinet is stuffed full of records going back through Houses we have owned, Salary Slips we have been paid, Investments we have made, Taxes we have paid. I even keep emails and texts as historical records.

All of these snippets of the past are the drip, drip, drip of what has formed us over time. This morning, I heard an interview with a man whose father had been murdered. He could no longer speak to his Dad but had saved his voice mails and texts to access when he needed to feel contact.

I understand that completely. To touch, smell, feel a letter, a card from the past is keeping in touch across time. To re-read an email, text, social media message keeps that person alive. People go to an historical site and touch the ancient stones to make contact however vicariously with the history of that place. As usual, I have to take it one step further with an uncontrollable urge to return and touch once again what I have left behind if only for a minute.

Finally, to illustrate the point for former fellow students of mine, the accompanying pre-college photo of one of our clan was sent to me this morning. It is of a girl called Judy who died of cancer about 4 years ago – still in her 60s. There are little things one remembers but it was the sad irony about Judy that her best friend, Christine, shared with me, that will stick. Judy was religious about working out in the Gym and was furious that it was all for nought in her view. She left this world angry that she had wasted her time and money on Gym fees when she could have been enjoying herself.

It is through memory that those who have left us live on and are given the respect that so often we don’t always find time for in Life.

Thursday, 15th August, 2024

Only Thursday. It’s seemed a long week. Dropped Pauline off in Rustington for a little procedure. Seems to have gone well. Now travel preparations and future planning can go ahead. Recently, I’ve been feeling my age. Sensitive to ‘oldness’. The cancer diagnosis and treatment have definitely contributed to that but also the corollaries to hormone and radiotherapy have which have taken me much longer to didmiss than I thought. I have exercised less and eaten and drunk more – sort of Eat, Drink & be Merry reaction to threat to life. I let go my self-discipline.

Our trip to Athens will mark the end of that and I will set myself a target to regain where I was previously. Today, we are going to book the month of March away in Canary island sunshine as a target time for my efforts. It is what I need to motivate me. Pauline has found a pleasant apartment outside Adeje which will do just fine.

It has all the amenities needed for 4 weeks stay – wi-fi internet, kitchen, laundry, nice bathroom, bedroom, lounge with satellite TV, Dining Table and balcony to sit out, heated pool. It is in easy walking distance of most amenities around Siam Park and we can hire a car to go further. Can hardly believe the price – £3,134.00 for a month. It’s cheaper than our 7 nights in Athens. We have still got to buy flights but Easyjet from Gatwick are only about £200.00 each return. It will be cheaper than staying at home especially if its cold in UK.

Weather in Southern Tenerife in March averages 24C Day time / 15C Night time with 7 hours of sunshine per day and rain on only 2 days. Weather in Athens in August averages bloody hot. It will be 35C Day time / 25C Night time with around 13 hours of sunshine and no rain. At some stage you pray for a cool, overcast day but no one hears. I’ll definitely leave my umbrella at home if anyone wants it.

I have to use these sorts of incentives to motivate and focus on self improvement, on fitness and weight loss. I’ve always thought that aging was a linear process – we get less able as we get older. New research out today and reported in The Telegraph and on BBCR4 Today programme suggests we age in phases rather like growth spurts but in reverse.

When I was 13, I suddenly grew to 6 feet tall over a few months and then stopped growing completely. This new research suggests that people suddenly find they have reached a stage of aging and then stop for a while before suddenly realising they reached another stage without noticing intervals between. I have been blaming my feeling of decline on my recent illness. This regeneration project will possibly show whether it is recoverable, Dear Reader.

Friday, 16th August, 2024

Lovely, sunny and warm day. The world looks clean and fresh after overnight rain. Starting to prepare to put the garden to bed while we are away. Clothes are being washed and ironed by the Laundry Woman. Who irons shorts and tee shirts? Answer: she does. Who am I to argue. I keep out of the way in situations like this. I’m busy spending money on next year – a re-visit to Thessaloniki and March in Tenerife. Kevin has already asked for a villa large enough to provide a bedroom for him for a week.

The political scene is going to be interesting for a while now. So nice to have Labour politicians with sensible, grownup policies dominating the airways. The right wing lunatic fringe are either going through the court system, crying for their Mums or plotting to sieze Leadership of the moribund Tory Party. If they are out of power and out of luck, they pretend they are some great oracle of right wing thought who the country needs to listen to. Here’s the brainless Liz Truss trying to sound intellectual ….

…. and failing spectacularly. She also thinks America – where they don’t know how stupid she really is – might be a fertile ground for rehabilitation of her reputation. It won’t, Trumpism is on the wane. She’ll be riding the wrong wave again.

What is amusing on our political scene is that the Right, who have derided Statism in general and the Welfare State in particular, are up in arms that a cash-strapped government should make Winter Fuel payments means-tested so that they only go to those who really need it. You realise the righteous indignation is just that and nothing more.

M&K have been swapping films/TV series with us. We gave them Slow Horses from Apple TV – If you haven’t seen it, you really should. – They told us to watch Rebus, from the Detective novels created by Ian Rankin. I should have done years ago but didn’t have time.

It’s intelligent writing and I’m enjoying it. Last night, I watched Long Lost Family which I love to hate. It is so moving. If you’ve ever lost somebody, you will know immediately. The answer is to never give up. It always amazes me how many of these people didn’t know how to acess the process of search and discovery.

In Athens, at the end of a long, hot day, a reviving shower and an indulgently enjoyable supper out, we can access our Netflix account in our hotel room and relax over a bottle of wine. It is important to make it home-from-home as we indulge the Greek atmosphere. The process has been refined over many years so that we want for nothing.

Saturday, 17th August, 2024

Gorgeous day down here. Warm and gloriously sunny. This Blog is for those who don’t like to look back but only move forward and anticipate the future.

The new buds push the old leaves from the bough.
We drop our youth behind us like a boy
Throwing away his toffee-wrappers. We never see the flower,
But only the fruit in the flower; never the fruit,
But only the rot in the fruit. We look for the marriage bed
In the baby’s cradle; we look for the grave in the bed;
Not living
But rising dead.

Norman Nicholson (from Complete Verse, Jonathan Cape, 1999)

In order to set up my automatic lighting ready for going away, I was monitoring the times of daylight and dark yesterday. It is really noticeable now how much shorter the day has become. Sunrise is 5.55 am and Sunset is 8.21 pm. The Autumn is coming, Dear Reader, in more senses than one. The signs have been there for a while but we are less than two weeks from September. So, that’s something to look forward to. That and Man. Utd, winning the Premiership. We can all dream and I am a real dreamer. Currently, I’m dreaming of a week’s hot sun in Athens and a month’s warm sun in the Canaries. I’m dreaming of a Labour government for the next 15 years, a Trump loss in the next few months and …. well I won’t go any further. My dreams will come true. The Future is to come.

Sunday, 4th August, 2024

A pleasantly warm and sunny morning. In the garden, huge honey bees are urgently visiting every flower head before buzzing off to their Queen. We are going to be green beaned out soon they are so productive this year.

Last night Supper included the first of our carrots. We only grew them for fun and chose a Rainbow Carrot strain. Within a few minutes of being pulled from the bed, they were being roasted and dressed in honey and thyme. Absolutely delicious! The beetroot is ready for lifting which I’m looking forward to.

We are a long way off Harvest Festival but, as I observed the other day, there is a slight hint of early decay outside. Maybe it’s my perception influenced by a feeling of personal decline. I’ve been feeling a bit sad and listless recently and I know it can colour my judgement. I think I am a bit bored and in need of stimulation.

Boredom is bad for me because I tend to buy things to relieve it. I’ve noticed over the past weeks that I’ve been looking at new cars. Because I was ill last year, I’ve only done 7,000 miles in this one. I’ve been looking at buying a winter of sunshine in the Canaries because it is a while since we’ve been there. I caught myself looking at a new, bigger TV last week and solar panels for the roof this week. I need to go away to banish this nonsense.

When I lived inland, the sight and sound of sea gulls was a welcome hint of the coast, of the sea, of far-off places, of travel. Many will know the beautiful sight of gulls following the farmer’s plough as worms are brought to the surface just as they do with the trawler on the sea. When we first moved here on the coast, lots of seagulls were a constant reminder that we lived by the sea.

The charm has waned. Now, they are a bloody nuisance. They maraud overhead, they stain the cars, they mob people on the coastal paths and they wake me at 4.00 am as they squawk noisily near the windows. And they are a protected species which stops Local Authorities culling them. They are the Right Wing thugs of the bird world. I am going to suggest housing them on the Bibby Stockholm.

Told you I was bored. I’ve even actually cleaned the car …. at last. And now, I’ve ordered a smart alarm clock which integrates radio + data on command via wi-fi. Which intelligent man could turn such an offer down? This clock integrates the internet functions which will perform Alexa operations while I am in bed. What more could I want? …. Don’t answer that.

Monday, 5th August, 2024

Emergency dash this morning to the dentist. Yesterday, a piece of tooth enamel broke away from one of Pauline’s front teeth and she has been left with an unsightly brown stain. I’m amazed she got through the night. Anyway, Calm & Gentle will fix it for her on Wednesday just before she meets her friends in London on Thursday and before we fly to Athens.

We drove there in a very clean car and drove back with half the beach on the carpets. While we were there, we had a walk on the beach with the tide coming in. It was quiet today apart from the gently lapping waves on the breakwater.

Today is the 52nd Wedding Anniversary of my friend, Kevin. I remember it so well. I’m beginning to fall into that old person’s syndrome of acute long term memory but hazy short term recall. Is that dementia?

At least I can still remember what these are called. Always loved beetroot and ours are ready for pulling up now. Sort of thing you can leave in the ground until you want them. They look alright though and tasted lovely.

Tuesday, 6th August, 2024

Going to be a warm and sunny day after a rather grey start. I am moderately content at the moment because I have a new gadget to work out. My Amazon EchoSpot with Alexa was delivered yesterday. I have been configuring it. It is intended to replace our clock radio which is showing its age …. like so many of us … but it does many other things. It will read my calendar of events to me at 5.45 am and tell me what the weather is and will be throughout the day. It will read me my texts and emails … Who could ask for more.

I know most people will already know this but, for the youngsters out there, on this day in 1991 only 33 years ago Tim Berners-Lee launched the first ever webpage which was a clarion call to the world to join the World Wide Web. You remember it, don’t you Dear Reader? Now, nobody on the planet can manage without it. Some people still don’t realise they can’t live without it but, believe me, they can’t. Just 3 years after this event, in 1994, I was accessing the WWW for the first time on a crash, bang, wallop modem which allowed us on to it through a simple phone line. No graphics. Just text.

It feels like the web has been part of my life forever and a total shock that it is only since I was 41. Today, I cracked the installation of my new, smart speaker which draws everything I want instantly from the web when my voice commands it: radio, email, text, calendar, etc.. It has replaced my old, (25yrs old) analogue clock radio by my bedside.

I am quite sad, in a way, because it holds so many memories. It’s been in the bedroom for 25 years after all. But time marches on. We cannot resist it. Now my bedside essentials include a wireless charger for my smartphone and a wifi enabled smart speaker. Not sure what the tissues are for.

Wednesday, 7th August, 2024

Nice morning. Taking my wife for emergency cosmetic tooth surgery and then I have lawn mowing followed by Gym. And … relax.

Woke up to a new woman this morning. She announced the weather, the time and turned BBC Radio 4 on. Unfortunately, she also read today’s calendar events reminding me that it was Wednesday and my first job would be to strip the bed and give the sheets to the washerwoman … so no change there.

I have resisted using these virtual assistants like Alexa and Bixby not because I didn’t like the technology but because I thought they would make me lazy. At the age of 73, I have been forced to embrace them – Alexa in the bedroom and Bixby elsewhere. Alexa comes with Amazon products whereas Bixby is the rival, Samsung virtual assistant. We have Samsung smartphones and all our TVs are Samsung. They all incorporate Bixby command software so now I’m going to make myself use it.

Well, the Dentist went alright if you don’t count the £235.00 bill for a new, enamel coating. On the way back home, we had to call in and collect a new elctric kettle.

I have never known a household get through kettles like we do. We threw one away just over a year ago and bought another, variable temperature one which was top of the range (We were told.) and worked fine until a couple of weeks ago and then it didn’t.

Because we had to wait a couple of weeks until that one was available last year, we bought a bog-standard one to tide us over and that is still here as a back-up. Today we collected a Ninja Variable Temperature Kettle. What could go wrong? Anyway, I’ve registered it for its 2-year warranty.

I was writing a couple of days ago about long and short term memory. As we get older, we all feel a bit vulnerable about our own. An interesting thing happened yesterday when I was speaking to an old friend of over 50 years standing. He is 74 and we were discussing the Digs we were originally allocated when we first went to College in 1969. I was with two pleasant, older lads who were very tolerant of me and we ‘got on’. My friend literally couldn’t remember who he was in Digs with for two years in one of these Edwardian properties pictured above. It is quite amazing how the memoy works and what we block out.

Thursday, 8th August, 2024

Out early this morning to take my wife to our local Train Station. It is about 10 mins drive away and, as you can see, absolutely palatial.

Angmering to London Victoria takes just over an hour because there are plenty of stops en route. She is meeting her old, College friend. They were at College in Tottenham together 1970-73. Christine’s husband died of cancer about 4 years ago so it has been nice for them to meet up again although it was quite a task for me to locate her. When I put my mind to that sort of research, I usually get there in the end.

There are hundreds of people-locator sites but I eventually found her through her sons on Linkedin which was just a lucky hit. This photograph was taken a couple of years ago before my cancer. So much changes, doesn’t it Dear Reader.

Sorry, but my obsession with ‘time’ rears its head all the ‘time’. Things/people that have gone still exist in our heads, in our memories, in our hearts. In that sense they never go. Tomorrow we will be thinking about Viv Butterworth who died on that day in 2017. It is hard to believe it was 7 years ago and yet her husband, Richard, has been living with the emptiness every day.

You know, today I am home alone. I’m alright about it because I am fairly self-contained and I live inside my head a lot anyway but the house is utterly silent. It is a deafening silence which intrudes on my thoughts. I keep listening for the clattering in the kitchen; I sometimes hear it but it is not there. Lonliness can be a terrible thing and we know it can be quite debilitating, life shortening. Anyway, I’m going to make the most of it. My wife will be back this evening with very high expectations.

I’ve been having a conversation with a woman from Rochdale today. How ironic. I ddn’t realise that she was from Rochdale until we had been corresponding for an hour. She was telling me that immigrants are unwelcome. England is ‘full’ and should be kept for the English. I looked up the origin of her maiden name and it is from America and Canada not England. When I pointed that out, she disappeared. Strange. Perhaps she’s gone back to America already.

Friday, 9th August, 2024

A very warm but breezy night has given way to a lovely day. Looks like we will have a warm week ahead. It even rained overnight which has helped.

Yesterday, I mentioned the anniversary of the death of Vivienne Butterworth – 9/8/2017 – and I found this photograph this morning. There is no annotation on the back so I don’t know hold old she was here but we think it was about 1958 which would make her 15. She died 7 years ago today at the very young age of 74 but lives on in the memory.

Seeing faces from the past slowly floating across this week is a salutory reminder not to let the living be reduced to memory by separation. Real time is precious even if we find it hard to realise until it is too late.

We trawled through old photographs for this and found a photo of Pauline’s Dad who died when she was just 10 years old. As she looked at it, I saw the sadness in her face and it hurt me. There is nothing can be done. All we can do is shore up our sadnesses with memories.

Sorry, I will cheer up …. eventually … but I am always struck by the enormity of not siezing the now and regretting in the then.

Of course, we have to live in the ‘now’ and it often feels so mundane. We inject the past with the rosy tint of sentimentality. Today we need more toilet rolls. Must alert Sainsburys to stock up as we go out to shop. Also, I have to clear a present that some cat has left on our front path. Why don’t cats use toilets? Some recent research suggests tha cats have other human traits like memory, loss and sadness.

To finish what has been an energetic and tiring day, I received this photograph which spoke to me about my College days and compared sharply with this week’s events. I haven’t seen these two characters since June 1972 – 52 years ago. They were both nice people in themselves but both were isolated in their own minority status. One was gay and the other was a Hindu person of colour. They probably both felt socially awkward at some point in the 3 years but I was unaware of any specific discrimination. It is the sort of social isolation that the Far Right are currently raging against as they take their country back.

A Hindu girl in a CofE college was a brave move in 1969 and, although I didn’t know her well, I recognised that she was a strong character and well up to the struggle. Bob made his name in Drama which gave him a platform. I didn’t really know him at all. I’m not sure at that time I understood what it meant to be gay. My one real association with him was his kindness when he drove me from Ripon to Oldham for interview for my first teaching job. He sat around for 12 hours while I secured the job, bought him Lunch and then drove me back to College. Kind thing to do.

Saturday, 10th August, 2024

Lads Lunch in Leeds today. It’s surprising how alike they are in political views. How they view the world as I do. I am surprised.

Convention has it that, as we get older, we become more right-wing, more conservative. It is thought that, as we age, we have more to conserve. We have accrued wealth, a house and a way of life in which we feel comfortable and don’t want threatened. We might have lost the thrust of the drive for success in the employment market and, although we don’t feel ill to our fellow man (or woman), we need to maintain our social position.

Convention has it that education is a strong determinant of political choices. The higher educated you are, the more socially liberal you are. Those with Degrees are more likely to be Left-oriented, socially liberal. Those with post-graduate degrees are much more likely to be Left-oriented, socially liberal and that includes welcoming of other ethnicities, of social change in their communities and so on.

Those with education level below Degree are far more likely to vote to the Right, to vote to keep foreigners out because their own position is socially vulnerable and they feel threatened by the ‘other’. It is this vulnerability that people like Farage, Tommy Robinson, et al have been able to draw into their web of deceit and are appealed to by the colour comics like the Daily Mail and the Daily Express.

When you are bombarded with this sort of front page day in day out and you don’t have much brain power or critical analysis ability, you are bound to be swayed. I have a post graduate degree. I am a left-leaning, socially liberal, middle class member of society. This morning, I saw video clip of a man abusing an Asian bus driver. My first reaction was disgust but I cried when I found out he couldn’t afford the bus fare. Here I am, buying what I want and he couldn’t even afford the bus fare. There is something wrong and I understand his frustration even if I an’t condone his behaviour.

Sunday, 28th July, 2024

Glorious morning. I woke up at 4.00 am on the beach in Colwyn Bay. It was warm and stuffy which is unusual for the North Wales coast but I was …. dreaming.

I had gone to bed thinking about Tenby and Saundersfoot on the coast of South West Wales. I had been reading about them in a Times article which was about the attempt to tax out of existence second home ownership.

Before my Dad died in 1965, we went on holiday to Saundersfoot. Tenby is the next place down the coast. So I was about 12 or 13 when we were there. It wasn’t my ideal holiday.

After Dad died, when I was 14 or 15, we holidayed in Colwyn Bay which was also ‘difficult’. By that stage, I wanted girls and the North Coast of Wales was not the place to look.

There is something special, elemental, enticing, absorbing about that line between land and water. It can be tranquil, soothing, exciting, threatening, frightening at different times in the union of the elements. We know that the moon controls the globe’s tides. Research suggests the human menstrual cycle which is about same length as the lunar month may be influenced by the phases of the moon and, therefore, the tides. Charles Darwin thought that the 28-day human menstrual cycle was evidence that our ancestors lived on the seashore and needed to synchronise with the tides.

All that from a visit to the beach … and I’d only driven down to Lidl to buy packs of almond milk.

Monday, 29th July, 2024

L’été est arrivé. At last. We should see at least 25C/77F today and may get to around 30C in the next couple of days. Not a cloud in the sky and I’m going to spend my time outside soaking up every ray – gardening, walking, relaxing, dreaming ….

I am a politics obsessive. In retirement, I have so much more time to be obsessed. I read, listen, watch politics constantly. Because it is no longer necessary to access the media in a linear fashion – times decided by the producers – I juggle multiple sources at the times of my choosing. In the past year I have been hooked on podcasts and, particularly, the Newsagents.

During the Tory reign, the BBC was deliberately slanted to the Right through appointments and management. Nothing as horrific as stations like Fox News but slowly and insidiously to the Right. The Left-leaning presenters upped and left. The set up podcasts to showcase their talents and found they could earn more money through advertising/sponsorship. They are sponsored by big, city banks like HSBC down to advertisers like Tesco Mobile. Podcasts are money-spinners. Why didn’t I think of that. Emily Maitlis, John Sopel and Lewis Goodall – all ex-BBC journalists – have hit a rich seam being paid for doing our hobbies of researching, writing and talking about politics.

Two pieces of news came to me this morning in the true meaning of co-incidence. Radio 4 ran an item about a new piece of research which found that broad beans contain significant amounts of dopamine which is used to treat Parkinson‘s sufferers. Apparently, dopamine improves motor function.

I love broad beans hot, cold, turned into a dip and they are easy to grow. I used to grow too many and gave them away when I lived in Yorkshire. Just as I was thinking about this, I was told that my old friend, Nigel, has been diagnosed with …. Parkinson’s Disease. You couldn’t make it up really. Although it really is scary for Nigel.

Belatedly, I must wish my sister, Jane Georgiou, a very happy Birthday. She is one of the skinniest people I know, has run long distances including for her club of Harriers and her country in International events. She is still doing it in spite of being stick thin. I’ve sent her a picture of a 4,000 year old Olive Tree illustrating what should happen as she gets older and how she’s failing nature’s laws.

Tuesday, 30th July, 2024

At 9.00 pm last night the temperature was still an uncomfortable 27C and not conducive to sleeping. This morning has opened a little cooler but is expected to rise to 30C during the day.

I’m walking on sunshine, wooah
I’m walking on sunshine, wooah
I’m walking on sunshine, woooah
And don’t it feel good

You didn’t think I knew songs like that, did you Dear Reader. It always surprises me what springs to mind from the shadows of an unconscious past. Outdoor living is good preparation for Athens.

I’ve found a wine cooler to replace the broken one. I was just about to contact a repairer but a new one with a 5-year warranty is more appealing. I managed to get it for just £507.00 which will include fitting, installation and removal of the old one. Tuesday will be a good day. Must get the champagne ready.

Before that, I have a lot of outdoor work to do in the garden. I discovered that mice had been renting our garden storage sheds over Winter and only now have got round to permanently eradicating them. That’s a job for this morning along with picking more beans which are proving unstoppable this year. Carrots are now on stream as well. We are eating lettuces like there’s no tomorrow (Maybe there won’t be.). Pauline is constantly harvesting herbs, preparing and freezing them. The other jobs we have at the moment are watering and constantly dead heading. Is this all becoming too dizzyingly exciting for you, Dear Reader.

Had the utter delight of watching Rachel Reeves taking on the duplicitous and routed Tories yesterday. We will lose our Winter Fuel Allowance which we’ve never needed and the country will get a serious, Chancellor at last which we’ve all needed for so long.

At least we don’t have to cope with the mean streets of the North of England. Just as we were hearing about the poor little kids enjoying their holiday dancing in Southport being killed and injured by a mad man with a knife, the MEN was reporting otherwise un-broadcast details of gang warfare in Middleton, Greater Manchester. There is a world outside my world of which I know so little.

At 1.00 pm and as the temperature has reached 31C, I’ve just been visited by this gorgeous girl. Look at the eyes … to drown in. Mind you, don’t blame her for dropping in.

Maximum today was 32C and at 9.00 pm we are still at 25C. Once again, sleeping won’t be as easy. Who needs to sleep? Life’s too short.

Wednesday, 31st July, 2024

High humidity usually means thunder. If only. We wouldn’t have to water but there is no rain forecast for us at least until Saturday. I will have to set one of my minions on to that task because I’ve got far more important things to do.

I love griddled swordfish steaks. They were commonplace when we were in Greece and Spain but have become so hard to find here since Brexit. The Mediterranean fishermen are keeping it to satisfy a huge demand across their continent and don’t want to cope with the import difficulties we have placed on things. This morning, our fishmonger has contacted us to say they have sourced some and we are going to pick up a 2kg Loin plus Sea bass fillets which go so well with salad.

A summer of disturbance is being encouraged by Farage and the extremist element who lost out so badly in the ballot box. To use the senseless deaths of three, little, innocent girls is utterly unconscionable. Of course, there will always be the ‘stupid’ people who believe the first rumour that they hear. And there were plenty of those yesterday. I did enjoy the instant karma this member of the intelligentsia received for his bravery. Play it back when you need cheering up.

Been invited to Lunch with some College friends in Yorkshire soon and we are flying off to Athens shortly as well. Be nice to be moving again. Athens is only 36C this morning and looks like this taken from a webcam this morning. You can just feel the heat oozing from the concrete. Down here on the South Coast, the humidity is almost unbearable in 29C. Every activity leaves one swimming in sweat. Sorry if that is too much information.

Thursday, 1st August, 2024

We’ve said Goodbye to July 2024 …. Forever. We will never see it again other than in photographs which are merely reflections of real life. On the first day of August, I looked outside on an incredibly humid, oppressive, rather grey start to the month and thought I saw signs of early Autumn. A few dry, brown leaves dropping from trees; my neighbours’ wisteria dying away in the heat; overblown herbs turning to flower and reseeding for the new year, a slight smell of natural decay. It is almost time to go away, Dear Reader.

The rolling news has been dominated by the awful murdering of little girls, the social media false speculation about the perpetrator being a Muslim and the thick boys of Britain First–Tommy Robinson–National Front–Faragist persuasion believing it. It is almost as if elements of the media are rejoicing in/encouraging news content. There is always a fascistic element trickling along the bottom of British politics.

If we only go back to 1930s Britain and Oswald Mosely’s British Union of Fascists which conceived of fascism as a ‘white’ fight against the global forces of ‘colour’ but was initially focussed on antisemitism while members of the Royal Family were courting the ultimate antisemite, Adolph Hitler.

After the war, we had the BNP and the National Front who fed on the utter foolishness of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech which was widely seen to incite violence and division. In what has become known in more academic circles recently as The Great Replacement Theory has underpinned these far right beliefs since time immemorial. The belief that England was once populated by some pure-bred English people and all these foreigners are coming in replacing us and diluting our purity is the crude sum of that belief.

Gradually over this new century, this anti-foreigner theme has melded into the poverty of the dispossessed and very much into a North/South split of the haves and have-nots. There is a strong feeling in the North of England that everything goes to the South and they have been deprived and forgotten. There may well be some truth in it and this was harnessed by people like Farage and Johnson to further their own political aims by hitching to Brexit. It was never going to solve poor people’s problems, it has actually made them worse and the result is a massive Left Wing majority.

Across Europe, Macron is struggling to contain the threat and across the pond Kamala Harris is rising to the challenge of the latest right wing icon, Donald Trump. It is hard to opine from this distance but at least it looks as if she is turning it around. In France, Le Penn has tried to soften her fascist party’s face to get elected. In USA, Trump is too far gone to retreat on his lunatic opinions. Harris will find a lot of points to ridicule and attack. Who knows, she might just keep him out and become the first female President.

Friday, 2nd August, 2024

The wonderful weather continues and all around us, farmers are harvesting their crops, before it deteriorates in the Autumn rains.

This area used to be a centre of growing herbs and salad vegetables in acres of glass houses. Many have been replaced by executive 5-bedroom houses now much to the chagrin of some old timers. Quite a lot of wheat grown round here in large fields which are lovely to see.

What farmers can do in their great fields with huge machinery, we have just done in our raised beds around our back garden. Yesterday was cut-and-process-herb-day. The basil is still producing and pesto being made, portioned and frozen for use until next time. Rosemary is thrusting for the sky. Oregano, Thyme, Sage and Tarragon is being washed, chopped and frozen although Chef is also experimenting with her new dehydrator so some will be stored in packs of dried.

The focus of the morning is (drum roll) valeting the car. It is absolutely filthy and has needed it for weeks. For at least a fortnight, it has been covered in Saharan dust which is not a good look. Oh, Dear Reader, I have become a dirty, old man!

And talking about dirty, old men …. Down at the beach, The Great Unwashed were out in force this morning. school holidays, energetic little sprogs, tired parents and grandparents – the excitement of sun, sea and fresh air is just too much.

They were out in force with deck chairs, cool boxes, wind breaks, barbecues, picnics, sun cream and anything else you can imagine for a day at the beach.

Saturday, 3rd August, 2024

Warm but breezy, overcast but with sun breaking through. Chef is making strawberry jam and I am planning an escape but not until I’ve valeted the car which I didn’t get done yesterday. Oh, life is so full, Dear Reader!

Our neighbours all come home today. Their two weeks in the sun done for another year. I am turning my thoughts to UK and Mediterranean travel. While I was searching, this hauntingly beautiful photograph came up from an award winning photo journalist and Sifnos resident, Filoktitis Salaminios. He is a friend of mine and records the darker sides of Greek life.

We first travelled to Sifnos in 1984 having already stayed on Zakynthos, Milos, Naxos and Corfu in the previous 3 years. When you arrive in a new destination and particularly on a small, Greek island, you want to settle in quickly by finding places to stay, modes of transport available and places to eat. Simos Taverna was the ultimately welcoming place to eat by the ferry dock in Kamares. The cook was Nikalos Podotas and the front of house/table waiter was his wife, Vangelitsa. If we arrived in colder months and March/April can be very cold, they were the only place open and their roaring fire was so enticing.

If you are not familiar with Greek traditions, you should know that you don’t sit at a table with a menu and wait to be served. You march into the kitchen and demand to see what all the huge cooking pots on the hot range contain. You make your selection, the cook memorises it and the assistant records it later for the bill (Ο λογαριασμός). In this case, Nikolas is not only the cook but the provider of the ingredients. He runs his farm to grow vegetables but also chickens and pigs and sheep. They are the staple of his kitchen. Most traditional of all is the chickpea that he serves every Sunday in a soup called Revithia (Ρεβυθιά).

In the summer, the tables by the waterside are most popular for a cooling breeze. I liked to sit there because I could see my house part way up the mountain as I whiled away the sunny, hazy days. You see what a photograph can evoke. Sadly those days are gone now and so is Vangelitsa. She died of stomach cancer 20 years ago at the ripe old age of just 61 but I remember her. Nikolas still cooks and farms but his son and daughter have largely taken over. Life moves on ….

Sunday, 21st July, 2024

A warm, Summer’s day but …. at home. All around us neighbours are away in Dubai, Parma, France, Spain. We are deserted. It is quite a little community here. This morning a girl 6 houses down who I have never actually spoken to before, put out an urgent request for help to weigh her suitcases because she didn’t know how to do it and they were rushing off to the airport. This went out on our Development’s social media page which flashed up on my watch and I jumped to the rescue with our luggage scale. Turned out to be a really nice girl with two, young children.

We heard from a friend from nearly 9 years ago this morning. In the days when we lived in Surrey, she was our next door neighbour. After all these years, their cat is still alive and their little lad is in the middle of his A Levels. Scary or what? We bought there when we were travelling to Sifnos each Summer and sold when we sold our Greek house. Nostalgia and loss ….

Filmed recently, this video of Sifnos, takes us back there immediately. We know every inch of ground, every house and shop, every island person. We even spotted ‘our house’ in the first few minutes. We were there for 40 years. We bought a 4 acre field above this bay and built our house in the foothills. It was home for 15 years.

Got your picture on my wall
and, maybe, you will get a call
From me, when I needed something …

So many things to go back to and touch again .. just one more time. Will there be time? There has to be time ….

There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;

There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,

And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

T.S. Elliot: ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ 

Forgive a sad, old man his musings. Sundays seem to do that to me. Outside, the only sound I hear is the gentle hum of the hedge trimmer wielded by my wife. I am gradually starting to nod off. Ah, perchance to dream.

I have thought a number of times of moving our investments into property with the hope of a better return. What has always put me off is the work involved unless I employed a letting agent which would eat into the returns. Well now, all my cash is earning above 3 x the rate of inflation and the property market is under threat particularly the second home market.

Very sensibly, Labour is addressing the housing crisis as a priority. They want to force Local Authorities to facilitate the building of thousands of new homes, affordable homes, council homes with new towns and stronger planning arrangements. This has to be the right thing to do for the have-nots struggling to get on the housing ladder but it will have downsides for the haves like me. The increase in property availability will tend to depress the current values of properties and the discouragement of owning more than one property will come by severely making people pay for the privilege. I agree with it all even though it limits me personally …. and this is the essence of democracy and the Labour Party. Country first. Party second.

Monday, 22nd July, 2024

A grey and overcast morning but very humid. I have become a dustman for the day. Today is all three bins day – Black (general), Green (recycle) and Brown (garden) – which happens every other week. I am responsible for the bins of 4 absent neighbours plus my own. Controlling 15 bins of different colours with different numbers on as three different bin lorries move them around is …. a nightmare! Still, even at my age, I’m up to it.

Chef is preparing for a Lunch Party and has been planning for a day or two. Today, we have to source the best, naturally reared chicken that we can find. Chef has decided that we are going to drive miles to a Speciality Butcher’s shop in Yapton. Let’s hope it’s worth it. An old favourite is being served – Coq au Vin. Haven’t eaten that for years.

Organic, corn-fed chicken legs, slowly cooked in a bottle of red wine with baby onions, mushrooms and garlic and served sprinkled with fresh parsley. To follow that Chef will make Tarte Citron and vanilla ice cream made with double cream in an ice cream maker that I bought her in Manchester in 1984. The trouble is, I’m supposed to be on a diet. I’ve got to lose weight. This isn’t going to help.

Yapton is a rather scruffy, agricultural community of linear, village development. It is not somewhere you would volunteer to visit if it were not for their excellent butcher’s shop.

I’m not sure which Kings are close or if there should be an apostrophe identifying one, particular king but I think he hasn’t visited for a long time in spite of the fine meat.

Tuesday, 23rd July, 2024

Is this really Summer? Fleeting hints of sunshine this morning. Our neighbours out in Spain and Greece have temperatures in the low 40C. Here, we’re barely above 20C. Chose the wrong year to stay at home.

Chef is pursuing her menu ingredients with tenacity and enthusiasm. After Breakfast, she was in the garden picking another Kilo of green beans and later she will be sourcing Jersey Royal Potatoes. We never nowadays eat potatoes but, if we did, it would be Jersey Royals. For those who don’t know, Jersey Royals are grown mulched in seaweed and that gives their wonderfully distinctive flavour.

Unfortunately, these potatoes have a very short season and we are coming towards the end. We can only source them in small, supermarket packs so that is what I will be sent to get – a lot of.

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind?
Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

T.S. Elliot: ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ 

My friend in Leeds said to me the other day that he was suddenly feeling really old. He cycles out in the Yorkshire countryside two or three times a week and regularly swims. It chimed with what we had been saying to each other. We both exercise in the Gym but, getting up, I’m increasingly feeling creaky and stiff. I don’t like it. I’m not going to accept it. Admitting it is the start of a downward spiral.

Often for women more than men, bone density is a concern with age. A common but really dangerous problem is a fall which breaks the hip. A friend, a girl from school. I say a girl but she’s in her mid-60s and this week she’s broken her hip in two places having tripped over one of her dogs.

She’s had a terrible time in the past few years with her partner and her Mother both being diagnosed with dementia and having to go into specialist care. Isn’t getting old great, Dear Reader? I can see in myself how careful I’ve become compared with the devil-may-care younger man I was.

I was laughing at myself this morning and how over-cautious I am about backing up my digital material – files, photographs, vide clips, etc.. I have the original copy on my hard drive (which can fail) and a copy in the OneDrive cloud that comes with MS365 which is reassuring because I can access it from anywhere in the world although it costs me £80.00 per year. I have 2 legacy USB drives -E & F – which are transportable but can also fail. One failed this week and I went into panic mode. Only 2 backups left!!

I’ve ordered a portable Solid State Hard Drive to back up my backups. Should stop me worrying. It will be here tomorrow. Hope nothing goes down before then.

Wednesday, 24th July, 2024

A pleasant, bright morning but hardly Summer. Anyway, I’ve got my orders. Cleaning and tidying while Chef gets on with cooking.

Staycation in Britain? This was Brighton Beach yesterday in the last week of July! What is happening?

Growing up in Repton, our house had 5 bedrooms but always about 8 – 9 occupants at any one time. Consequently, I shared a bedroom with my brother, Bob, who was just 10 months younger than me. I wasn’t easy to live with, I’m sure and Bob and I had very different characters. Bob was technical, mechanical, dextrous. In those days, I showed very little intellectual prowess at all. I was physical, challenging, sporty, aggressive.

I would impatiently break things because I couldn’t get them to work. Bob would patiently repair and reconstruct things because that’s how his mind worked. It would be hard to say we got on. I passed my 11+ and went to Grammar School. Bob failed his and went to Secondary School. We just allowed ourselves to co-exist in different spheres. While I played Rugby and was Athletics captain I’m not even sure what Bob did although I have seen a picture of him in Basketball kit.

Where we clearly divided was in music. I was strongly into Pirate Radio of the 1960s – Radio Caroline and Radio London. When they were threatened by the government, I was involved in lobbying the minister for making them illegal. I was absolutely stunned by the Moody Blues – Go Now. Bob was into blues and rock. He tried to learn the mandolin and loved John Mayall’s Blues Breakers. Today, John Mayall died and I was transported back to the bedroom I haven’t been in for more than 50 years.

Bob lives in Maidenhead but is currently in Yorkshire. He sent me a photo of his wife this morning because he is shy.

Thursday, 25th July, 2024

Guess what? It’s raining. Horrible, low cloud fine rain that soaks you though the moment you go out. Guess where I’m going? Out. But not before a session of Home Chiropody from Chef. She does my feet and then her own. I’m not trusted with sharp things especially scissors and files. I have my feet checked and creamed every morning after Breakfast. All the walking we do can lead to drying and cracking of the soles.

Chef is going to pick a batch of Basil from the garden this afternoon while I’m in the Gym and she will make another batch of Pesto for the freezer using pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and salt. I absolutely love it especially with fish. It tastes like an entirely different thing compared with the rubbish sold in jars and it freezes so well.

Heard from some of my past pupils today. The pupils I last actually taught are now 46. I was quite a good teacher (I think) and was reasonably popular with pupils (I think). I like kids. I enjoyed the process of watching them learn and not just academic things but growing up things as well. Some of them contact me still about all sorts of relationship advice … because I am notoriously good at relationships. (Not). One of my girls (Old Ladies) asked this morning about what to do about the driving mirrors on her Audi because they wouldn’t fold back out when she turned on.

Another one posted a picture of her legs. Why do they do this? Is anybody improved with this sort of graffiti? I hate it. Her legs aren’t as nice as mine but they’re not that bad. They just have to do what every one else does and I spent all my teaching life telling them to think for themselves and not necessarily do what they’re told. Not good for discipline but fantastic for life and that is what’s important.

An Asian lad who I haven’t heard from since he left school in 1994 contacted me on Direct Messenger this morning asking how I was and I answered quite blandly that I was fine. His name is Amjad and he was affectionately known as JamJar in the 1990s. Wouldn’t be tolerated now but he loved it. It anglicised him and made him acceptable to other kids. He was a perfectly pleasant lad who wanted to do well as so many Asian kids did. He told me that there was a Whatsapp group from his year at School and I was regularly talked about. I didn’t like to ask in what way. He said he knew it was cheeky and I probably wouldn’t but could he have a couple of current photos to show the others. I surprised him by sending him a couple of current and couple from my College days which were long before he was born. His parting words were, Stay safe and healthy big man! He thinks I am his friend for life now.

Because Chef is making Pesto, I’m cooking Supper. It will be a simple Bruschetta of a Tomato and Shallot with Pesto and Parmigiano on toasted Olive Bread. Might need some wine with that. Got to get back on our diet!

Friday, 26th July, 2024

The sun is up; the sky is blue; the grass is green …. but where are you, Dear Reader? Hope the world looks good for you. My photo memory box threw up two evocative photos this morning. They are both from Greece 2010 in the grounds of our home.

There is nothing more evocative of the Mediterranean than the bright colours of a Bougainvillea in brilliant sunshine. The most common is a magenta colour. We had to be different.

I took this photo for the fly rather than the gorgeous colours of the flowers on the Pomegranate trees around our house. I don’t even like Pomegranates. I think the fly is probably dead now.

And then I found this photo from the Winter of 1982 on our route to work across the Pennines. You can see why I gravitated towards Greek Summers.

There must be something in the air at the moment because I was contacted out of the blue by another of my former students last night. He was a lovely, boisterous lad who was not particularly academic but definitely popular with the girls. Now, he is a mature – ish citizen with a lovely daughter who he dotes on and he promotes pop concerts or whatever you call them nowadays. He said:

It means a lot to speak you. I was always gutted when I felt I had let you down because you were always fair and looked out for my best interests.

His words to me were something of a shock because teachers rarely really know the effect they have. I am constantly humbled by news of kids who I had virtually written off but have become perfectly good family members and sensible citizens.

Saturday, 27th July, 2024

Lovely morning and we’ve got a run of great weather to look forward to now. Well, it is nearly August, for goodness sake. Haven’t seen the grass looking so lush and green at this time of year before. Anyway, I’m going to mow it today.

Last night, I kept getting Whatsapps from old friends about events in Paris. While I was was watching a Drama on C4, they were all watching the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games – all 5 hours of it. Even though I love French people, their history and culture, you’ve got to be desperate, haven’t you?

Over Breakfast this morning, I had it played on Catchup fast forward until Celine Dion sang and then it was played real time. I like Celine Dion’s voice with its emotional depth. It appeals to me.

Yesterday, when I was remembering Greece in photos, a video from Kamares last Summer came up and I was amused to see the Poison Dwarf featured. My goodness, she’s put on some weight – not good at her height.

Oh, it brings it all back – bit like a nasty medical condition.

We have been in our house 8 years now and all the white goods came with it. It was guaranteed for the first 5 years under the house warranty. Nothing has needed replacement …. until now. When we bought the house Off-Plan, we were offered two levels of completion – Basic and Upgraded. We knew we would be here for a while so we chose Upgraded. It cost about £30,000 more but it came with better quality fittings in the bathrooms and the kitchen particularly. The kitchen units were nicer and it included better dishwasher, double oven and large gas hob plus a built-in Wine Cooler.

When we had guests for Lunch recently, we suddenly realised that the white wine in the cooler wasn’t much cooled and we now realise the whole thing is not doing its job. It was turned down to 5C but, when we tested it, found it still measured 19C. I have immediately looked for a replacement. Can’t believe the price!

This is the immediately replacement cooler from the same company – Caple. What is there about a simple cooling mechanism that costs £832.00? It seems crazy. I’m going to see if I can get this one repaired first.