Sanders Blog

Sunday, 13th June, 2021

Well, the Blog, like me, is staggering on to Week 651. That represents 12½ years of my life and we will see if it can quietly stagger to year 13. I will never be able to compete with my hero, Tony Benn, and his lifelong records nor will it be as significant. It will gently fade away with me.

The sky is blue and completely clear. The sun is strong and already warm. At 7.30 am, the temperature is 19C/66F and is forecast to reach 27C – 29C/81F – 84F during the day. I’m going in the gym now at 8.00 am before it gets a bit too hot. My orange juice, freshly squeezed and gorgeous, tasted slightly better this morning. My wife informed me that we had won the Lottery. The huge sum of £51.00 will not change my life but it will cover Pauline’s Beauty treatment later in the week. Fortunately, I don’t need anything.

The fairly meaningless replacements for the European Health Insurance Cards, the GHIC, arrived very swiftly yesterday. We requested them on-line and they have only taken a few days to come. What the hell we are going to do with them and how long it will be before we need them, goodness only knows. Some of the papers including the mouthpiece of the Tory Party – The Sunday Telegraph – are running a front-page report today that restrictions could be in place until next Spring when we will be 71!

Experiencing strange connections of people-places-times at the moment. A girl I taught and last saw circa 40 years ago was in contact with me yesterday. She was born in Oldham but now lives in Bournemouth and she and her family spent last Friday in Southampton walking in exactly the same places, photographing exactly the same sights that I had done the day before. I know this is not earth-shattering but that co-incidental link, that invisible thread across time and place is what fascinates and moves me.

I suspect that I would not be alive now if the events of 36 years ago hadn’t occurred. I was smoking 40 cigarettes each day. I know I have written about it before but I like to remind myself. I had given up the strong, acrid French tobacco in Gauloises cigarettes but 2 packets of anything was a lot and would cost me at least £23.00 per day at current rates. Sitting, delivering an M.A. paper one evening at Huddersfield University, I absent-mindedly lit a cigarette in my mouth but set fire to the filter instead of the tobacco. Anyone who has done that will know the acrid taste produced. It revolted me and I never smoked another cigarette nor did I suffer withdrawals in spite of having tried and failed to quit many times.

This week will also feature another life-threatening/life-saving event that I acknowledge annually. Healthier and wealthier is a good place to be. Now I will try to survive my gym session. My film today was Waiting for the Barbarians with the brilliant Mark Rylance. It is based on a novel by the literary titan and Nobel prizewinner, J.M. Coetze, and is a political allegory that deals with the savagery of colonialism. It invokes an anti-imperialist analogy to white supremacy through human history. Not an easy watch.

I have survived a hot and sweaty 2¼ hr session and emerged, blinking into strong sunlight as the temperature in our back garden hits 30C/86F. That was it for today. Relaxing in the sun. Griddled Tuna steaks with green bean & asparagus salad and iced, sparkling water. Really tired now. Just about enough energy to watch highlights of the England match. Won’t be running to the bar for Last Orders that’s for certain.

Monday, 14th June, 2021

We are only one week away from the Summer Solstice and Longest Day. Monday morning, 8.00 am, clear blue sky, strong sunshine, 22C/70F – a long, day empty as the sky lies ahead. What to do?

One answer is easy – put out the bins, do my weekly INR test, drink my orange juice, perform the Rapid Antigen Covid test, reply to people who have contacted me in another life. Submerge myself in everyday life ….

My INR test result is near perfect. The Covid test is perfectly negative. My orange juice is delicious. I will complete my exercise regime and find jobs around the garden. And yet …what is it all for?

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

When You Are Old’ (1892) by W.B.Yeats

I lead a number of lives. There is my day to day which I record in the Blog. There is the fantasy life that I suspect most of us have but few of us talk about. For me it is fed by literature, the arts of drama, poetry and music and then there is a political, intellectual life that informs and analyses the world around us. These days, I am reduced to discussing, debating, arguing with old ‘friends’/associates. It has even extended my understanding of people who I knew in my past but haven’t seen for so many years.

Peter Holgate for example and the well-travelled, John Morris have re-appeared since I retired and proved interesting examples of the error of my tendency to erase the past. I follow and have quite a few followers on Twitter. I ‘talk’ to politicians, barristers, journalists throughout the day in this alternative world. I try hard to keep them apart and the Blog rarely features these political debates if I can help it.

There is the world of Bloggers that I follow avidly – Dominic Cummings Blog, Professor Chris Grey’s Brexit Blog can be riveting reads at times. I follow Greek Blogs like Keep Talking Greece which keeps me up to date. However, occasionally, on mornings like this one, I wake and ask myself, Why?

Although a 4 week delay to release of Covid restrictions is baked-in to the system, Twitter is convinced that will not be the end. This from an epidemiologist this morning:

No chance they’ll relax further in 4 weeks’ time. That will be at the peak of the current wave of cases. Essentially this means no change of further relaxation til at least mid-August

Even a government minister has said this morning that 4 weeks may not be enough. That would scupper even our Greek trip.

Just been phoned by the Oxford University research team to say they want to come round this afternoon. We will host them in the garden where it is 27C/81F….. Lovely girl arrived for a pint of blood. Ex-teacher doing a long day testing old souls like me. Tempted her with a glass of white wine. She has two more calls to make before home. What a job!

Tuesday, 15th June, 2021

I take Warfarin or rat poison every day of my life and have done since 22^nd January 2009. Many would say that rat poison is totally appropriate for me. It prevents my blood from clotting during the heartbeat cycle and, therefore, creating a stroke or heart attack. It is no big deal and I test my clotting rate once a week with my home INR machine.

What I am sensitive to is cutting myself, internal bruising and blood tests. Yesterday evening, I did a blood test and an hour after the young lady tester had left, I was still bleeding. I had my hand wrapped in an old tea towel to absorb the drips and protect the furniture. On days like this, I don’t volunteer to play the piano.

On days like this, one can feel the life drain out of one, the love of life swiftly follows leaving the body empty and unfeeling. And so it goes. Life’s blood, Love’s blood drains away into the earth. Dispersed and not accounted for. And so it goes

The day is hot and sunny again. We need ice! Our fridge/freezer came with the new house. It doesn’t have an integrated water/ice dispenser that we would have chosen. We are receiving an ice-making machine from a Brighton company today.

If we are going to be stuck here this summer and it looks as if we will be, we have decided to augment our patio furniture with a dining table and chairs. We’ve ordered them but so have a lot of other people.

Wednesday, 16th June, 2021

Up at 6.00 am this morning to a hot and sunny start. Quite a few things to fit in and Pauline is going for an early Beauty treatment. Even at this time it is 17C/63F and humid.

Another glorious, hot, sunny but humid day yesterday. We went for a drive down the coast which was busy with tourists on the beaches, in the cafes and on the roads. We drove through Worthing, Lancing, Shoreham by Sea, Brighton, Rottingdean and Saltdean.

Two days before my 6^th birthday in 1957, the Queen and Prince Philip were escorted round Repton School by the Archbishop of Canterbury who had formerly been Head of the school. The Queen was opening a new wing and simultaneously considering a placement for Prince Charles who, ultimately, went to Gordonstoun. The whole village turned out to greet her and this photo includes my maternal Grandfather in his trademark bow tie on the back right.

Grandad James, Joseph, Jeremiah Coghlan was of Irish Catholic heritage but born in Brighton coincidentally just 10 miles from where I now live. When Bob & I were 3-4 years old, Grandad took us to Bognor Regis, Brighton where he rode a huge, white horse on the beach and through the waves to remind himself of his days in the WW1 Cavalry Regiment.

He particularly loved Rottingdean and Saltdean just further on from Brighton and took us in an open-top bus ride there and back. A memory of 1955. Can you imagine it? It is strange how somethings fade completely and others, so long ago, burn inside one’s memory for ever. Sometimes the stick-dry and wrinkly benefits of people from the past flicker into flame and start to burn in the tinder of those memories. Sometimes the winds of change just blow them out.

All of this is clear in my pre- 5 yr old’s memory. I remember being allowed to eat pork pie and baked beans for tea for the first time. Trashy but Paradise! Mum was not happy to hear of that when we got back to Repton.

There was a time when I loved all those foods that were forbidden at home. I even know of people who like crisp sandwiches. Can you believe it? Carbohydrate filled with carbohydrate. Guaranteed for weight gain. All of these things are forbidden by me now. It is different when the prohibition is self-applied. Well, it is for me. My character automatically rebels against any authority and I refuse to be beaten!

I’ve had a nagging toothache for about three weeks now. It isn’t terrible and is very unusual for me but it has forced us to address the search for a new Dental practice. We have finally decided on Calm & Gentle ,Rustington and have taken out contracts and made opening appointments for next week.

I have been allocated to this lovely lady who is said to be the most calm and gentle of the staff. I am led to understand that she also supplies glasses of red wine for nervous patients like me. She sounds my sort of girl. There can be genuine benefits in pain.

Glorious day which has hovered around 27C/81F throughout. The sun is intense and strong and I am beginning to look like a refugee from the sub-continent.

As I conclude this with last night’s sunset in East Preston, it fills me with a huge and swelling feeling of loss that can probably never be reclaimed. Life falling inexorably into a sinking ball of fire. Dying in the sun…

Thursday, 17th June, 2021

A warm and humid night. The temperature didn’t fall below 17C/63F although we had some welcome rain. It is going to be a muggy but overcast day for us. There is light sunshine and we’ve reached 22C/70F but feels very downbeat after yesterday.

Visited our favourite Green Grocers in Rustington yesterday for bunches of delicious asparagus. When I get addicted/committed, I find it hard to let go.

A friend sent me this a couple of days ago and kindly included a memory jogger. This photo is of almost exactly 50 years ago. There is not so much about the scene to age it. The hair styles maybe. Of course, re-meeting the people would certainly move time on. I wasn’t on this trip but just one glance at the faces and I am transported to those days. I must admit I had forgotten four of the characters but Nigel, Chris and Christine were part of my circle.

What this photo does emphasise is the painful loss through time. The lightness, the freedom, the insecurity celebrated as absence of responsibility are all left back there in the sunset of those 50 years ago. We are all heavier now – some of us much heavier – weighed down by the experiences of the years, carrying the responsibilities of our situations as our lives have matured.

It is fascinating to find that so many of our cohort have reached out to reconnect particularly since retirement and especially spurred on by arriving at 70 years old. They appear to have found real enjoyment in reopening the past. I have found it much harder in reality.

Move on just 9 years from this and on 17^th June, 1980 I all but ended my life on this bend in Oldham, Lancashire of all places. Regular and long serving readers of the Blog may turn away and stifle a yawn at this point. I know I do it every year but this is my record and the event was so almost terminal for me – falling through the sunset into eternal darkness – I feel it just as necessary to annually observe  as I do deaths of other friends and relatives.

I was so lucky. So lucky to be hit by a car and badly injured, so lucky to be recuperating for the best part of a year, so lucky to have lost almost two years out of my career, so lucky to be alive. I could have died and not been able to say, Goodbye. The really strange thing about this is that I remember almost nothing about it. Unlike the events of 50 years ago, the event a decade later was never presented to me in any coherent fashion. Anything I really pretend to remember was retold to me later in recovery.

Friday, 18th June, 2021

Heavy rain this morning. The whole world looks fresh and clean. Wonder what this one will bring. Certainly, I will be exercising in the gym and not out on the roads today.

Strange day in prospect. We had just filled the car with enough fuel to drive approximately 500 miles when we received a call from Honda to say that there was a recall on our Hybrid CRV to cover an issue with the fuel pump. Could we book our car in for the upgrade but it would need to be low on fuel at the time? Consequently, we have done trips to Southampton, Brighton, Worthing and all points in between to get rid of 460 miles from the tank. This morning, it is going in at 8.30 am for the upgrade.

The roads are awash with the night’s rain and the fuel light comes on as we drive but a cup of coffee and Honda’s wi-fi see us through the 40 mins wait.

Yesterday, this ex-college, young man proudly announced that he had completed the last 2 of the 214 ‘Wainright’ peaks in the Lake District. He said it had taken him 7 years. Today, it was announced that this young woman below had just broken the record by completing the full 214 peaks in just 6 days.

Although leaving Greece 7 years ago was painful, a year later we felt fully vindicated when these headlines started appearing:

We managed to avoid the financial hit and/or long wait for Greek property price recovery. Even now, we would still be waiting and the pandemic would have meant us leaving our property empty and untended for 18 months. So, pain is tempered by relief. We still have vague hopes of returning at the end of August but that hope is increasingly feint.

Saturday, 19th June, 2021

Rather overcast and cool this morning. Definitely not one for sea swimming. Pity really because I could shown off my new haircut. I had it done by one of my favourite barbers yesterday. Have to pose in the mirror instead! My wife is going for her 3^rd attempt at getting the right hairdresser in 6 weeks on Thursday. It appears to be a very difficult task. I have been urging her to go back to Sassoon’s in London and I think she will if this one doesn’t turn out to be ‘acceptable’.

There were some reasons for optimism yesterday if not particularly in the football. The revival of liberal England is definitely a reason to be hopeful.  The Lib.Dem. by-election win in a previously ‘safe’ Tory seat sends out a strong message to both Left and Right. This was the first solidly ‘Remain’ seat to be contested and it sent a message to the Labour Party that Embrace Brexit is not a winning message. It also sent just as strong a message out to the Tories that to concentrate on the Red Wall, less educated, less affluent, less liberal demographic is to desert their core support. The two parties are almost having to swap places.

This book is going to be on my reading list. Always liked Gillian Tett. One to take to the beach. The demise of the DUP in Northern Ireland and the lost Brexit vote allied to Johnson’s hopeless Withdrawal Agreement/NI Protocol is proving an almost unstoppable force towards Irish Reunion. Who needs the I.R.A. when you’ve got the Tories?

On the downside: A new wave of infections is definitely under way in England, says Prof Adam Finn of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. It does not bode well for summer travel. The Greeks still expect mask wearing indoors and out and have a night time curfew from Midnight to 5.00 am. This is not the way to enjoy a holiday and certainly not if the weather is warm and sunny.

Over 90% of the UK’s infection increase is Delta (Indian) variant whereas France and Germany have around 2%. New cases are now increasing exponentially in Russia, China, Mexico, Argentina & Brazil.

Despite this, I’m feeling much more optimistic today. I don’t know why. I’ve just been checking our Easyjet flights which are 58 days away. At least now we can cancel without loss right up to the day before. We can change dates without additional cost and, currently, there is so little demand that next year’s tickets would cost us less than half this year’s. Newspaper headline this morning: UK holiday costs more than Europe as demand grows.

Sunday, 6th June, 2021

Well, there certainly ain’t no sunshine today. Warm but overcast. So emphasises the difference sunshine makes to one’s life. It sort of links the everyday mundanities into a coherent whole … but you don’t always get want you want!

 The Agente Immobiliario in Aguilas, Spain contacted me yesterday while I was out and our hotel in Athens also emailed me about our rolled-over Summer booking. It is so frustrating that I can’t do anything about either at the moment.

Our island of Sifnos has installed another webcam which pans (after a long time) up the valley and towards our house. It is almost too painful to watch because we know every inch of every road, beach & pathway. We recognise old friends as they drive or walk down to the port. We can monitor the new developments that have taken place since we were last there. Hope falls on stony ground.

Did an hour in the gym and then an hour walking in the emerging sunshine. Lovely and warm on our faces one way and on our backs returning. Only 21C/70F. Quite tired now. My recovery rate does not seem to be improving fast enough. I am only 70 after all.

Monday, 7th June, 2021

Our local beach is fringed with rows of Beach Huts – white sheds. I remember my childhood holidays often included a beach hut so we could spend the day down at the beach and catering for the family of kids. I must admit, those experiences coloured my judgement and I saw them as outmoded features of a bygone age. The Sunday Observer had a report yesterday about the value of these ‘sheds’.

The headline was:

The trend for UK holidays has pushed prices for the UK’s 20,000 candy-coloured seaside cabins through the roof.

and the article featured some ‘sheds’ on the beach in Essex which were bought for £10,500.00 4 years ago and are now on the market for £48,500.00. Some on the North Norfolk coast resort of Wells-next-the Sea, Pauline’s old, family home, are going for just under £100,000.00. Mind you, it is known as Chelsea-on-Sea.

John Ridley posted a photo of his house in North Yorkshire. He bought it from new in 1980. I find it hard to conceive of staying in one place for over 40 years. In that time, we have bought and sold 8 properties and speculated to accumulate. I am one of those that Theresa May sneered at as citizens of nowhere or Erewhon as Samuel Butler entitled his famous novel.

We are going out to shop today. Our region has almost no Covid infections. We feel very comfortable out and about although we are still wearing masks. Might go for a walk on the beach later particularly now the kids are back in school.

The beach was a lonely place today. Children back at school and sea mist down on the horizon. The tide was almost in and lapping gently around the rocks. Perhaps I should take a few more risks like Christine Dagg celebrating her 70th birthday with a first-time Glider experience.

An hour in the gym and an hour out walking has left me tired but feeling I’ve fulfilled my commitment. The day has ended with gorgeous, hot sunshine.

Tuesday, 8th June, 2021

Sea mist start to the day again but it presages a hot and sunny one later. Humidity is rising. Looking for pinpricks of light in the gloom, I applied to replace our expiring EHIC cards for the new, GHIC ones. This is more in hope than expectation but hope is all we have. The Global Health Insurance Card reminds us of Brexit but we’ll use it for now.

As soon as travel is freed up, we need to be ready. Hopefully, European and Transatlantic travel will become a possibility again and we can escape this gloom. The application was a fairly simple, on-line affair which took about 5 minutes and promises to deliver our new cards with 10 working days. I.T really has made life so much more simple.

Pauline’s old school friend, who moved out to live on Gozo two or three years ago, messaged me this morning to say it was 28C/83F and very sunny there this morning. I immediately wanted to jump on a plane but it is just not possible currently.

I’ve decided we can’t just wait around for things to happen. We need to get out. We’ve decided to drive down to Southampton for the day and the weather looks like it is genuinely improving over the next few days. We’ve only been to Southampton once since we got here. It’s only about an hour’s drive away as is a lovely city of ancient and modern contrasts. It has the nearest IKEA to our home although one is currently under construction about 10 miles away now.

Sainsbury’s and Parcelforce deliveries will keep me at home this morning so a hard stint in the gym will be my initial exercise. It’s 9.20 am and all sea mist burnt off revealing clear, blue sky and strong sunshine. A hot walk will be this afternoon’s activity.

Of course, talk about ‘heat’ is all relative. In 2013, this was the scene around our house shortly after we had employed workers to clear the grounds.

I then went on to employ a little goblin for ‘free’ to spray weed killer on the residual areas so that the grounds – a number of acres – remained clear until we left in October. The sun is so strong that nothing regrows without watering during the summer months.

Well, today went on to reach 25C/77F and I did 2 hrs straight in the gym and then ruined it all by drinking a bottle of wine. I’ve been driven to it by demons. Our region has 21 cases of Covid infection. Sky News is reporting that Greater Manchester is being advised to minimise travel out of the region and that there is concern at a ‘very serious’ Conwy county cluster. It is hard to see what the connection is but there must be something.

Wednesday, 9th June, 2021

A blue, cloudless sky with hot sunshine this morning. It is 19C/66F at 9.00 am but forecast to get somewhere near 25C/77F later. However, it all feels a bit aimless. I am looking for work to do to keep me sane. The garden will need watering. We are having a delivery of fish – just two sides of salmon of about 4kg.  I will need to prepare the car for the drive tomorrow. I will punish myself with another, hard, 2-hr workout in the gym.

Last night, we were casting round for something to watch on TV. The recent BAFTA winner, I May Destroy You, was downloadable from SKY. I felt like I had moved into a parallel universe from the start. Even so, I watched the first 3 episodes but it didn’t get any easier. I tried to give it a genuine chance but the events were so out of my experience that jumping the credibility gap was to0 much.

I was much more gripped by Newsnight on BBC2 and the discussion of the Northern Ireland Protocol. It was clear from the start that Johnson blithely signed the ‘Deal’ knowing that it sold Ireland, the fishing industry and the City of London Financial hegemony down the river in order to say he had got Brexit done and to win an election while arrogantly believing he could renege on it all later and just carry on as if nothing had happened. He actually appeared on camera telling the Irish traders exactly that. Now, it has come back to haunt him and Biden will be forced to sort it out.

Talking about dodgy dealing, the Memory Box threw up a strange record this morning which illustrates completely the dodginess of the Greeks. For the first 10 years of using our Greek house, we didn’t fully understand the supply of services. Electricity, particularly, was extremely cheap.

Then, when we were thinking of selling, we found out why. We had been living on Agricultural Electricity rates for all those years which was strictly illegal but encouraged by our Greek friends as a good way to cheat the system. Greeks are never happier than when cheating the state system. In order to formalise our supply for the purposes of selling, we had to jump through all sorts of hoops and feign ignorance about the rules over previous years. Even the Δημόσια Επιχείρηση Ηλεκτρισμού (Electricity Office) man had to be bribed with bottles of whisky. What strange, invigorating times.

Thursday, 10th June, 2021

Up early on a warm and humid but overcast morning. Orange juice and tea and then straight into the gym where I did a hard 2hrs workout being urged on by a voice in my head. That voice congratulated me on having lost 3 st since my birthday 9 weeks ago. Shower and change and then off to Southampton – a 49 mile/1hr drive. Actually, the traffic was heavy and it took us a little bit longer.

Down at the port, the activity was minimal. A TUI Cruise ship and a Carnival one but little going on. Not much action on the Red Funnel, Isle of White ferry either.

Southampton itself didn’t look so exciting as it can do in hot sunshine. The pandemic has clearly had a big effect on travel and trade. IKEA was very quiet. The streets were distinctly underused. The Leonardo Royal Hotel Southampton Grand Harbour looked far from grand and the Marco Pierre White restaurant inside was closed.

There is a jarring of old and new in the architecture which isn’t handled as well as some cities.

All the mood music seems to be for a stay on relaxation of Covid restrictions which is not good news but, when you see the Red List of rapidly increasing infection rates, it becomes clear why. They are largely concentrated in the North of England in general and Greater Manchester in particular.

RED LIST 

The 25 areas placed on Delta variant watchlist are revealed below as this strain is said to be ‘60% more infectious’ than the original:

However, local lock downs have generally proved unsuccessful so it will probably make sense to continue a blanket policy until the R-Rate, which many consider to be between 2.5 – 2.8, is brought below 1.0 again.

Friday, 11th June, 2021

Another morning of Mizzle (mist & drizzle) just as Cornwall is experiencing as well. It reflects my feelings exactly. Very warm, humid night. Nothing much on the horizon today unless you include a trip to Tesco this morning. I have been completing this Blog for 650 weeks of my life but I am beginning to wonder if I can carry on with it.

In the gym, I’ve been watching a terribly harrowing film called 1917 directed by Sam Mendes. It is a true story and deals with people dying without the support of their loved ones. The concept is so unbelievably sad that I found it almost impossible to watch. Not being able to say, Goodbye, has to be one of the worst things in the world.

When we were researching places in Sussex to buy houses, we looked at Horsham. It is rather more expensive because of its easier commuter links and we were attracted by its café culture with excellent restaurants and shops. It was a choice between that and proximity to the beach and, ultimately, the latter won out.

Horsham isn’t far away if we want its facilities but an easy walk to the beach is far more appealing. We had a quick drive to Horsham this afternoon and quickly realised that we made the right decision.

Saturday, 12th June, 2021

Blue sky, sunshine and real warmth. Everything is set for a lovely few days but they feel empty. Never needed friends more than now. My travel app tells me that we have 65 days until we fly to Athens. Will it happen? Who knows? If travel restrictions are eased by mid-July, we will try a French trip but the 3^rd Wave of infection, which is surely starting, may extend the shut down even further. This morning, it is reported that British Airways is to put thousands of its staff back on full-time furlough which is an ominous sign. It’s really feeling like imprisonment and that things are getting worse not better.

Highlights of the day: early trip to Sainsburys followed by lawn mowing and patio cleaning. What more could anyone want? A hot and sweaty gym session is coming and then … ???

Inflation is coming but there is so little opportunity for safe savings products at the moment. I’m constantly searching for other possibilities. Reading the Manchester Evening News last night, this appeared.

Manchester Waters transforms a former 26 acre dockland site located between the residential neighbourhood of Castlefield and Salford Quays into a first-class city-living development. Buying ‘off-plan, the apartments start from £124,995 and could ‘expect’ a return of 6% outside capital appreciation. Looks like an exciting proposition that might be worth investigating.

Exactly a year ago today, I snapped this little chap in Tesco carpark. I wonder if he is still alive. Will we be this time next year?

For someone who hadn’t watched a film – even a piece of fiction for absolutely years until 12 months ago, I now escape into unreality at every possibility. Tells you something about how I’m viewing my life. I do two hours in the gym each day and almost watch a full film each time. I subscribe to Amazon Prime, Netflix, Sky Cinema, Film 4, as well as having BBCiPlayer and ITV Hub.

I can’t decide whether I choose sad films to suit my mood or sad films create my mood. Whatever, sadness seems to pervade the atmosphere at the moment. I am fixated on Ireland currently. Today, I was watching a British/IRA conflict film called ’71. It is my history. The year 1971 was a critical almost momentous year for me but the Irish conflict was just a back drop at the time, a feature on television news.

In retrospect, I should have taken it more seriously. There were a lot of things I should have taken more seriously but youth can never be told. In age, it appears too late. In the film, the young soldier on his virgin mission in Belfast gets in to trouble, is deserted by his friends and forced to fend for himself. Although it makes him stronger, it also breaks him inside. His trust in people is destroyed. It is a cruel lesson for a good person and a shaming lesson for mankind.

Sunday, 30th May, 2021

Summer was back across the country yesterday. Wall to wall sunshine and 23C/74F. Even late in the evening, people were sitting out with friends. We had a trip to the Garden Centre and started to ‘dress’ our extended patio area with pots of colour.

We will have to rig up some automatic watering system when we go away but at least they will provide some interest for a few weeks. Geraniums which I love because my Mother hated them and Impatiens which we all used to know as the house plant, Busy Lizzie, but are now developed for long-lasting and tough garden plants.

Having spent years doing extensive gardening and, particularly, vegetable growing, we bought this property with minimal garden because we expected to be travelling a lot. Now, we feel a bit frustrated. A trip to the Garden Centre is agony because we want one of everything but have nowhere to put anything.

I raked and fed the lawns. We enjoyed an afternoon of intense sun. Our one meal of the day was Roast Salmon with pesto crust, Tomato & Basil salad and Asparagus. It is plenty for me. I’ve now lost all my pre-Covid weight gain and I’m into new territory. It’s a lovely feeling.

Caught a recent recording of A Place in the Country this afternoon which featured West Sussex and our village of Angmering. The area was presented in a very attractive light. West Sussex is officially the sunniest county in the UK and the price of an average house is currently £570,000.00. Property is in great demand down here and sells within days of it going on the market.

A cheering piece of news arrived in the post this morning. Pauline and I try to support the Oxford University and ONS Statistics Survey by entertaining a researcher once each month to provide a swab test and now a blood sample. We are being tested for Covid infection and now anti-bodies in our blood sample which help us fight off the virus. Today we both had negative virus samples but, more importantly, positive anti-body readings.

We live in the local government district of Arun which contains the towns of Arundel, Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, and takes its name from the River Arun, which runs through the centre of the district into the sea. Arun now has only 6 Covid infection cases and we feel very safe. I was reading in the MEN yesterday that:

Coronavirus infection rates have gone up in every borough in Greater Manchester except Bolton, the latest figures show. In Oldham the number of cases has trebled week-on-week, while it’s doubled in Wigan and more than doubled in Salford.

150 people tested positive for Covid in Bury and Rochdale recorded 165 coronavirus cases …

These are quite worrying statistics and may well result in control relaxation being slowed.

Monday, 31st May, 2021

Yesterday the weather replayed 23C/74F with long periods sunshine. We went back to the Garden Centre but it was packed with long queues snaking out of sight, waiting for the cashiers. We didn’t stay. It will all quieten down on Tuesday. Apparently, it’s Bank Holiday today. Apart from not meaning much to the Retired, I never really liked them as they encourage crowds in places that are usually comfortably quiet.

We went out for our first hour’s walking in the sunshine.  We are so lucky to have lovely countryside on our doorstep and be within minutes of several beaches. It is so long since we were serious gardeners that I am beginning to forget the names of so many plants we grew in the past. I used to pride myself on knowing all the ‘official’ Latin names. Now I struggle to remember even their common ones.

This wonderful shrub/tree is Ceanothus. In this photo, it looks more purple than blue but Ceanothus is one of the most wonderful electric blue colours in nature. I grew it in Yorkshire but it was never more than a low-growing bush. Here the shrubs can be found growing wild and as full tree size. This one is just on the roadside and looks spectacular.

We had coffee in the garden sunshine and I burnt my neck. Brilliant! Our second walk was through the cooler and shadier woodland on the fringe of our Development. Haven’t been that way for a while and it was lovely to see all the changes the last few weeks have made to the trees and bushes. The bird song was incredible and we met the fat, brown rabbit eating out again. We seem to have so many robins around us. Must have been a good winter for them to survive.

M&K are back from America for about 3 weeks so we are going to drive up and see them probably at the end of this week. It will be nice to give the car a chance to stretch its legs and us to see some new scenery. We have been imprisoned for too long. It is good to reacquaint ourselves with people we haven’t seen for quite a long time.

Really do feel a bit lost at the moment and at a loose end. I have always woken up with a plan for the day in my head, things I need to achieve, actions I need to take. I am really suffering from a lack of that at the moment. I feel like I’m not in control of events and that is not an enjoyable sensation at all. I am continuing to deal with diet and exercise although warm sunshine is more conducive to relaxation, socialising and wine drinking. Must stay strong and believe the sacrifice will be worth it.

The Christian faith constantly reminds me why I rejected it. Been watching the Long Lost Family series and it emphasises why women of my youth so often were parted from their babies because of the ‘scandal’ of illegitimate pregnancy and the view of it as immoral within organised religion. At the weekend, The Times featured Ann Keen, a Labour MP, who got pregnant at 17 and was despatched by her family to a religious order, Moral Welfare Association just over the Welsh border from Chester. There she gave birth in 1967 and she was given an episiotomy but refused any pain relief to teach her a lesson. Her parents insisted that she give up her baby for adoption and was told it would be taken on day 10. She woke on day 7 to find her baby gone. This was the Christian spirit of our youth.

Memory Box produced a photo of our garden in Quarry Court, Huddersfield from 16 years ago and a shot from the Kafenion in Apollonia 8 years ago in 2013. Lovely memories to reflect on.

Pauline has just taken a self-administered Rapid Antigen Test 3 days after her trip to Milton Keynes and it has proved negative so all is well. We are going to trim hedges and lawns before going out on a walk in this beautiful weather. The temperature has reached a pleasant 24C/75F and the sun has been extremely strong. We are giving serious consideration to installing air conditioning in the Lounge and the bedrooms because this trend is unlikely to be reversed in our lifetimes. Our house is built for high insulation energy efficiency not to keep cool.

Tuesday, 1st June, 2021

June already. Life is running away. The weather outside is glorious and was 17C/63F at 7.00 am but the atmosphere in my head feels like a rather depressed cloud. The optimism of recent weeks is closing down. French travel was shut down a couple of days ago. UK conditions look as if they will remain for some time longer. Any foreign travel is set with draconian conditions.

This morning, the BBC-R4-Today was interviewing Beach Hut owners on Frinton Beach and doing that typical, media vox pop trick of just featuring the views they need for the occasion. As one woman who has used her hut every year for 30 years said, I’ve got my mug of tea. I’ve had my bacon sandwich and the sun is out. Who needs Portugal or Spain when you’ve got this? I wanted to throw my orange juice at the radio. She obviously hadn’t experienced the joy of European travel for many years and almost certainly voted for Brexit.

My favourite style of cooking is definitely Mediterranean. I love all the fresh ingredients. I particularly love Pesto – on Salad, on Fish in fact almost anywhere. Originally from the wonderful, Italian town of Genoa, Pesto traces its name to the Italian word “pestare,” which means “to crush or pound”. It is made from Basil leaves crushed with Pine Nuts, Garlic, Parmesan Cheese and Olive Oil. Italians would make their Pesto freshly but most British people’s experience of it will have been from a jar. I can tell you, there is no comparison. They are like comparing freshly squeezed orange juice with a can of Fanta.

We have long tried to avoid eating any processed food. Pauline makes Pesto and freezes it in batches which works extremely well. We grow the Basil in the garden and have a continuing production process throughout the Summer. That process has begun again and yesterday’s weather was perfect for encouraging Basil. These plants will be ready for a first harvest in about 3 weeks and will continue to perform until September. The Pesto produced will be more than enough for a year.

Our neighbours who moved last week have called back round to see us. Pat has a recurrence of his cancer which has now moved, ominously, to his Lymph Nodes. He is going to begin his Chemotherapy at Brighton Hospital later in the week and is clearly feeling rather fragile. Who can blame him? He will have 12 sessions of treatment and he is already saying that, if he feels awful after the early ones, he will stop attending and prepare to die. I can’t even imagine being in that position. Pauline’s friend, Christine, was widowed when her husband’s Melanoma, which they both thought had been caught early, reappeared and killed him at the ridiculous age of 62.

I love hot sun. That’s one reason why I loved living in Greece. I tan easily without burning … or I did. I wonder if it is my aging skin but I seem to be burning more easily at the moment. I must be more careful. We know so many older people suffering from Melanomas. I want to Live … I think! Anyway, with people back at work this morning, we are going to the beach ourselves for a while.

I’m completing this at 5.00 pm as the sun is still shining and the temperature is 26C/79F. The entire garden has been watered and is glistening bright green with health and vitality. I wish the same could be said for me.

Wednesday, 2nd June, 2021

Another beautiful but empty and aimless day. A long warm day yesterday that peaked at 26C/79F. On this day last year, it was even hotter. It is Half Term and children were out with parents enjoying the beach. To be honest, there was plenty of room for everyone because the tide was fully out. We walked for an hour in the sunshine.

I was surprised to see how many were swimming. The Life Guards’ noticeboard said the water was 13C/55F which sounds far too cold for me. The David Lloyd outdoor pool used to be maintained at a minimum of 20C/68F and that was only just acceptable. Still, kids don’t even seem to notice. They certainly wouldn’t have read the latest bathing water quality report out yesterday which told us that UK has the dirtiest waters in the whole of Europe.

This little chap was happy in his own world, fantasising some part of a game he had invented for himself in the middle of boggy sand with a world of sky above him. We walked for an hour and he was still alone with his world when we left the beach. Life can be rather like that at times.

By 8.00 pm, it was still 26C/79F so we nipped back to the sea to watch the sunset. It was busy everywhere. People were out keeping cool. The Tapas Bars were packed with people sitting outside in the warm air.

The big events today include a trip to Asda to refuel the car for a drive North on Friday and a return to the Garden Centre to buy a new Parasol for the garden. All life is here!

Thursday, 3rd June, 2021

Another lovely day. Normally, I would expect to feel lifted but I remain flat. I associate good weather with travel, enjoyment, good food and wine, the sounds of foreign languages, the challenge of foreign words on road signs, menus, newspapers. There is currently none of that. I apologise to regular Blog readers but I am finding it hard to dig my way out of this slough of despond.

This is the mood music for the day – Stjepan Hauser on cello playing the Adagio in G minor by Tomaso Albinoni.

Sunshine, neat and tidy garden. Birds singing and flowers flowering. Lounging on a settee in the garden with my iPad, smartphone, chilled red wine and nibbles. What more could one man want. Well, it’s not doing it for me at the moment. There are bigger things in life but it is a real struggle. Still committed to no alcohol and controlled calorie intake. Still forcing myself to complete my exercise routine. I’ve walked/jogged 59 miles in the last 7 days and 220 miles in the last 28 days. It takes every ounce of my determination. Sunny outside but ain’t no sunshine. The last few days have been particularly difficult for some reason but I refuse to give up!

Honda arrived at the house at 7.40 am to take our car for service. Two years old and we’ve only done 8,000 miles. At my current rate, I could have jogged more than 5000 of those in the past two years. That’s another thing. I love driving. I can drive all day and be really happy, especially if I am in some, strange country on foreign roads with real challenges to follow signposts and speed limits and searching for interesting restaurants and hotels. None of that even in prospect at the moment so I can’t escape the mood. They will deliver the car back home but we will probably walk round to collect it earlier.

Watched the Keir Starmer – Piers Morgan interview today. He came over as extremely likeable and very damaged by his childhood. It is a very sad but grittily determined story of triumph over adversity. If you missed it, really worth downloading at …

Other items of interest – to me at least – include the news that our house has increased its value by £140,000 over the 5 years we have been in it. Sounds a lot but is, actually, about half the increase our Surrey apartment put on in exactly the same time length. Really illustrates how location makes such a difference. However, the pandemic is encouraging people to move out of crowded, urban areas towards the coast and the countryside so prices may well be lagging that process.

Newsnight on BBC2 last night featured an artist from my past. Bridget Reilly is 90 and still working. She looks good and sounds lucid and vital. She has a new exhibition at the Lightbox Gallery which is a couple of miles from where I used to live in Woking.

Friday, 4th June, 2021

Another lovely, warm morning but won’t have to water the garden because we have some light rain. Driving Northwards today. Hope the M25 will be kind to us. The car was serviced yesterday so it will be interesting to see if there is much difference in the setup. At least Honda gave it a full valet service before delivering it back to us.

BT have switched us to digital phone connection this morning. They told us it would happen. We no longer need the copper wires of old. We have had to plug our house phone into the Hub/Router and all calls will be delivered over the internet from now on. They didn’t really give us a choice although I was happy to do it.

It does mean that our new, digital phones, and I ordered a set of 5, will connect to Alexa and allow us to voice-dial numbers and send/receive texts like a mobile service. This arrangement brings us so in line with our mobile services which I already put through our broadband connection while in the house that a separate number is almost pointless. BT say all customers will be moved to this service over the next few months.

The Fish Market have delivered 6 lovely, fat Sea Bass packed in ice. They are so big that one will feed two of us easily. They are from the Mediterranean sea and that is as close as we’re going to get for a while. The news is that even Portugal is being removed and Greek islands, which had hoped to be made available, have not been included at all.

It is going to be a very lean time for the tourist industry at home or away. Even Wales is looking at possible tightening. There is a concentration of the Indian variant in Llandudno, Llandudno Junction and Penrhyn Bay. I know the Greeks were panicking already and this could tip them over the edge. Two years of little or no income. We have flights and hotel rolled over from last year for time in Athens towards the end of August. It looks like we may be pushing that back until at least September and maybe even November. Certainly, the airports and hotels around them are looking at another barren Summer.

I signed up to the Professionals networking site, Linkedin, nearly 20 years ago. I used it only sporadically and, although retired for 12 years now, I’ve never withdrawn from it. Occasionally, they contact me offering me a list of jobs. Today, they’ve really hit the jackpot.

Can’t imagine anyone better equipped to teach Relationships and Sex Education than me? Well, apart from almost any other member of the human race!

Saturday, 5th June, 2021

Woke up at 6.00 am to another warm and sunny morning – 17C/63F. Couldn’t be bothered getting up. That is not me but I could not be bothered. Didn’t get up until 8.00 am. Then the day kicks in and everyday jobs need doing but I am performing them without enthusiasm.

Quite a difficult drive up to Surrey yesterday. The rain stayed much longer than forecast and the M25 was terrible. Long, slow-moving queues. At least it was one of those moments when the self-drive facilities on the car come into full use. Setting an automatic speed means the car moves forward when the one in front does and stays a regulation distance from it, breaking automatically when the one in front breaks. Lane-keeping means exactly that – the car is kept within its lane automatically. This is exactly what one needs on the M25.

We arrived in time for Lunch and it was nice to see them after such a long time although Pauline has been talking with Amanda in America and P&C in Surrey by FaceTime on her iPad about twice a week if not more.

I stuck to my diet and only ate a banana which I had brought with me. To drink? Just a glass of iced Shloer. There are some things of which I just can’t let go.

I am a gadgets man. I love a technical challenge. The digital phones arrived this morning. I’ve already set 3 of them up as well as done an hour’s walk in beautiful, hot sunshine, mowed and edged all the lawns and swept up after Pauline’s hedge trimming. Just 22C/70F this afternoon and a bit sultry.

These phones, I find, actually work with our existing network of 5 cordless handsets so we will have 10 now which means we could put one in almost every room excluding the toilets. The new, digital handsets allow us to make calls to two different numbers at the same time or make a call and receive a separate call at the same time. We receive voicemail like a mobile service and can send & receive text messages. Junk calls can be blocked at the touch of a button.

Two of the five new phones I ordered didn’t arrive. I’ve just phoned BT and they are giving them to me for free because of the inconvenience. I like BT.

Sunday, 23rd May, 2021

The morning started off sunny and bright at 6.00 am. By 9.00 am, it is grey and dull. Certainly not the warmth one might expect of late May. Even Sifnos has been suffering some unusually cold, wet and windy days.

Sifnos came to my Breakfast table this morning. A girl I used to flirt with outrageously, even though she is gay, contacted me on Instagram. Anna is a lovely girl/woman from Northern Greece who had settled on our Cycladic island and worked in a restaurant we used regularly in the summer months. Her English was broken but quite good and she had a lovely sense of humour. In the Winter, she runs a walking business taking off-season tourists on hikes around the island. Using the Sifnos-Hiking account, Anna Graikou sent me best wishes and the memories came flooding back to warm the morning.

I am the last person to ask about ‘pop’ music but a name sprang out at me from a girl who I was at College with. She was asking about Atomic Rooster. I don’t remember them for their music or their appearance but the words in the name are the sort of thing I don’t forget. They appeared at college in 1971. Looking at this, it certainly puts my college hairstyle into perspective! End of memory.

Must publicly wish my oldest sister, Ruth, a happy 74^th birthday in case she forgets her date of birth. Well, at her age, anything is possible.

Just finished 2 full hours in the gym and I am quite tired. I really am trying hard and pushing myself. I like targets and stats.. These are my current ones:

	Daily Average Paces	Distance in Miles
Last Week	15,431	56
Last 28 days	13,823	201
Last 12 months	11,692	2,204

At the same time, I am trying to restrict my calorie intake to about 1200 per day. My fitness app. tells me I am using 2,706 per day split almost equally between active & resting calories. I’ve gone through the constantly tired stage now and I’m in to the addictive part that feeds in to my personality. Now, I can’t let go.

Monday, 24th May, 2021

Sunday evenings involve watching Call the Midwife. Pauline really enjoys it. She taught childcare and is fascinated by the development of knowledge over the 1950s/60s. I watch it in support but it almost always upsets me. The dire living conditions of the poor in London Docklands tears at my heart but it is the joy of parents at the birth of new born children which makes me so sad, sometimes to the point of tears, having missed out myself. 

Growing old can be scary especially for the childless. We fit in to that category but I don’t believe for one minute that we should have done otherwise as an old-age insurance policy. Who will be there at the end? Who will tell others of our demise? Will it be instant as in a heart attack or long and slow requiring care and support. None of us know and that is the problem. My wife has always refused to even acknowledge the possibility of dying. I am actually quite blasé about it. As long as I leave the world without too many open questions, without unfulfilled and burning ambitions, then I am happy to go and without ceremony. I would rather it was not long and painful but I realise I have no choice. I don’t care about a funeral. A heavy duty bin bag will suffice.

The poet, Robert Browning’s poem, Rabbi ben Ezra, in 1864 included the lines:

Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be

The opening lines are quoted in a 1978 film and were picked up by John Lennon for his last song – Grow Old With Me written for Yoko Ono ironically just before he was assassinated. 

Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
When our time has come
We will be as one

Of course, in the end, childless couples are left with just one. Now that is a scary prospect. My mother had the comfort of believing she would be reunited with her loved ones in another life. I do not. It is one of the reasons I am so pleased that I have managed to reunite Pauline with her friends. She is going to stay over night with Blondie on Thursday and I really hope they both enjoy it.

Tuesday, 25th May, 2021

Although it is a beautifully sunny morning, the days are feeling very empty and rather without optimism. Feeling a bit dead inside. I am desperate to get away but to where? There has to be more to life than this! I don’t know why but I can’t summon up enthusiasm for anything. I feel that I am constantly punishing myself with exercise and dieting but all the future rewards are moving further away. I’m even seeing the aging of my body made more visible by the day. My legs are starting to develop knots and lumps probably because of all the exercise but are making me feel even older than I did.

I can hardly listen to the news or read the newspapers anymore. I am desperate to travel and feel actually unwanted here, rejected. Today we learn that France is considering even tougher restrictions for UK travellers due to the Indian variant and I really don’t want the hastle of quarantine after my return. There has to be more to life than this!

I think I will go to see Friends in the North from my past. My old flatmate, Nigel, is an artist with some reputation. He has a gallery on the East Coast and it would be nice to visit and see my old friend again. His ex-wife is also an old friend of mine and lives in the same town. Might even look her up as well. She takes photographs and exhibits them.

Would love to see John Ridley while I’m up there and, maybe, even make my peace with Kevin & Christine after all this time. It really is a chance to reconnect and not feel isolated any more. I have kept that period shut and bolted for so long like a long, distant pain which it is time to heal. If I can’t do it now, I will never be able to. John and Kevin & Chris all live in North Yorkshire. It will be nice to drive up there.

It is so long since I was in North Yorkshire. I was always abroad when things were going on. I have only returned to Ripon once in the whole of my married life and that was for about 20 mins. I don’t even know if I can do it now but I really ought to steel myself. Of course, we will also visit our friends in Greater Manchester, in Shaw, Oldham, Marsden and Helme. It feels so long since we saw them. Let’s hope some still want to see us. We will be up in October as usual but, as things are, we may make a much earlier, additional trip as well even though this morning’s news that parts of this area are shutting down again is not encouraging.

Wednesday, 26th May, 2021

Didn’t sleep last night. Walked at least 50 years. Feels like something huge has happened. Absolutely exhausted this morning but there is a lot to do. Pauline is going for another facial in Rustington. I am the chauffeur. I’ve had tooth ache for 2 -3 days. First time for about 15 years. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I haven’t been to the dentist for more than 12 months and, now, our Dental Practice has closed down.

We are going to look at a new one this morning. Of course, I am very fragile and need careful handling. The Calm & Gentle Dentist in Rustington sounds just right but I want to check her out first. Does she look calm and will she be gentle? These will be the questions I need to satisfy myself in before signing up to an annual contract. The basic 12 month contract is just over £200.00 per person for twice yearly inspection, cleaning and polishing, twice yearly hygienist treatments and all x-rays.

Tomorrow will be a fascinating day. Have to get Pauline to the station for about 6.30 am as she sets off to visit her old friend in Milton Keynes. Blondie sounds absolutely delightful and is very keen to reunite with Pauline. That is lovely but I will be home alone over Thursday and Friday. I will sleep alone for the first time for around 40 years. I have absolutely no idea how I will react. I am fairly self-sufficient. I can wash and dress myself. I can cook and I know how to switch on the TV for United in the Europa Cup final in the evening. I spend quite a lot of time reading and writing alone but I know someone is always within earshot if I need a drink, etc.. I don’t think for one minute I will sleep. I am alcohol-free for 7 weeks so I can’t induce sleep. I’ll probably just write until I keel over on the desk.

In this week in 2010, we were just getting round to having our Greek kitchen tiled. We had spent a few days in Athens sourcing the tiles and a nice, Greek man was coming to do the job. So we didn’t get in the way, we left for a local resort, Platys Gialos on the south of the island. It was still May but we thought we should test the water temperature for swimming.

It was another month until we were swimming happily every day until we left in October. I think we have had 5 new cars since then but the time and place feel even further away than that.

I received some security advice from a former reader the other day. This evening a CCTV security installer arrived. We don’t really see much crime around here but we have been talking about surveillance of the property linked to our smart phones and tablets for quite a while.

At the risk of boring you, Dear Reader, I refer back to happier, more normal times. Just 5 years ago, we were having Lunch (What is Lunch?) with P&C and Amanda at the Hand & Spear gastro pub/hotel in sunny Weybridge. I recorded what we had to eat and that is the most distant part of this: Roast Pigeon with Beetroot and Beetroot Jus for our starter followed by slow roasted Lamb with Celeriac Fondant accompanied by a bottle of chilled, white wine. Sociability plus haut cuisine is now gone.

Thursday, 27th May, 2021

A huge, bright moon overnight drawing the past away. Up at 5.30 am on this absolutely beautiful morning to ferry Pauline to her train. It is a ridiculously long and awkward journey just to get to Milton Keynes. She will go via Gatwick Airport and change at Clapham Junction in a 3hr journey. I will definitely drive her there next time.

She has prepared as much as she can to get me through the next couple of days. I’ve been taught how to use the dishwasher. I’ve rehearsed how to use my credit card in emergencies. My fresh orange juice for breakfast tomorrow has been squeezed and stored in the fridge. What more can I want? Don’t answer that!

Pauline is reuniting with friends and I need to as well.  I’ve driven home to start my Blog and will then spend 2 hard hours in the gym.

Our lovely, across-the-road neighbours came over to say goodbye to us yesterday morning. Pat is 83 and June 81. They are both very active although Pat is now suffering badly with cancer which has spread into his Lymph glands. In the 5 years we have been here, they have been friendly and kind to us and we will miss them.

Actually, we won’t miss them too much because they are only moving about 5 miles away and we will call round to see them when they are settled in. Their Daughter-in-Law is moving to Aberdeen and invited us to stay with her if we go up. I fancy driving to Aberdeen so we will. I hate losing contact with people It feels like something of a bereavement. Still, sometimes it is necessary.

We will not be on Sifnos island for a while but we can get a little bit closer. The island’ s webcam from ‘our’ side of the harbour runs 24hrs a day. The only excitement occurs if a ferry or fuel ship comes in to dock but it is reassuring just to watch the ripples on the water as we did from our verandah. The EU Digital Covid Certificate for travellers entry will not be launched until July. It will make arrangements for travel very rushed this summer.

My Memory Box threw up this image this morning. Rather shocked me. All looks a bit too classical and refined for the people we are now. The gallery house as I tried to create it at the time. We were finalising the sale remotely from my Office in Greece in 2010 prior to flying home for a month to sign the documents and putting our few, remaining effects into storage.

After a lovely morning in the sun and 20C/68F in our back garden, my performance in the gym was not a pretty site today. Plenty of sweat but also lots of salty tears. I am watching a biopic of Marcel Marceau, the famous (Jewish) French mime artist. Certainly I didn’t know that his early manhood life was in Occupied Poland and then Occupied France as the Nazis swept away the Jewry. Marceau’s contribution was to set up a line and smuggle Jewish orphans to the safety of neutral Switzerland. 

There is sadness everywhere. I don’t know why I chose it to watch particularly when I’m on my own. Parents executed in front of children. Children shot in front of parents. True love torn apart by fear and violence. The sadness is deepest in the individual acts of selfless love and bravery.

Even so, the distraction is useful in that my exercise routine is showing real signs of working. I am pushing it hard and seriously restricting my intake. In the past 2 months, I have lost more than 2 stones in weight. It isn’t comfortable but it is pleasing. 

Friday, 28th May, 2021

What a strange night. Isn’t silence disturbing? I deliberately stayed up until midnight and, even then, woke at 3.00 am and again at 5.00 am.. The radio went on at 6.00 am. Normally, we would be up between 6.00 – 7.00 am. Was woken this morning at 7.56 am by my watch buzzing text messages from my wife.

I was and I hadn’t. I was still in bed and I hadn’t remembered to take the orange out of the fridge. Life is hard for a man!

I looked at myself in the mirror. Not a pretty sight and my face and body were showing the signs of too much sun yesterday. Of course, I hadn’t put any sunscreen on. I have a wife to do that …. only I didn’t yesterday. It hasn’t been the best Spring for warm, sunny weather but I took a photo of the fig trees last night after the sun had gone down. They are starting to grow back vigorously now after the savage Autumn pruning. Young fruit are developing everywhere. Let’s hope we have a long, hot Summer and a big harvest. Love, freshly picked figs. They’ll never be as abundant as our Greek garden trees but they are a reasonable substitute.

Really feeling sad and empty this morning. Don’t know what I’m going to do. Feel like doing something dramatic and rash but it wouldn’t help. I’ll just go on punishing myself in the gym. While working out this morning, I am going to indulge myself with Pavarotti in Puccini’s opera Turandot with its most famous aria from the final Act: Nessun Dorma or “None shall sleep.” Could have been written for me last night.

Wherever we go, I push hard to get the things that we need to make life easier and more enjoyable. That is what I do – push the boundaries as hard as I can to achieve. One of the big requirements of life is fast broadband provision. Whenever we choose a new house, that is one of the first requirements. When we moved to Sussex, I actually lobbied the BT management long before the house was built and told them I wanted superfast fibre broadband straight to our door. I couldn’t see why that would be a problem on a new-build house. Not long after we moved here, I had exactly that, way ahead of most of the country.

Our Greek island provision was the hardest to manage but this little Germanos shop did their absolute best for us and we were able to function well enough to access all our Office documents, Radio & TV and Blog. It was a struggle but that was half the fun of living abroad. Solving difficult problems and achieving long-held dreams.

After a marathon 2½ hrs in the gym, I cleaned the car and unstacked the dishwasher. I even started to examine the washing machine and thought about learning to use it. This is how loneliness and boredom affects people. Put a suit on this afternoon and it nearly fell off me I’ve lost so much weight. When I think I’ve gone as far as I can, I must have some more made.

Saturday, 29th May, 2021

The end of the week, almost the end of the month, end, end, end. Up at 6.00 am and warm but a little overcast. Sainsbury’s delivery at 7.00 am. We are going to the Garden Centre this morning although I’m finding it quite difficult to summon up the enthusiasm. I don’t know what’s happened to my emotions recently. Seem to be all over the place. Everything seems to be touching me off. 

I ‘enjoy’ watching a TV series called Long Lost Family where people who have lost touch with or never met members of their family are helped to search and locate them. Occasionally, those who are found, do not want to reunite and, occasionally, it is already too late because they are have died but the successful ones are emotional and heartening. It is hard to imagine a life of lost connection and meaning, not knowing what could have been. People who are without ‘connection’ feel dissociated and they are constantly searching for something. It must be the ultimate pain.

The most recent series focuses on ‘Foundlings’. These people really have no idea who their parents were or even when they themselves were precisely born. Worst of all, they live with the ultimate sadness that they were discarded unwanted. The first two programmes have featured people who were left on the steps of Churches, Hospitals in bags and boxes. The most recent one featured a woman of 75 who was left on the luggage rack of a train. They are introduced to newspaper cuttings featuring their ‘finding’ all those years before which give them meaning but the ultimate prize is a DNA trace that produces living relatives. The meetings are incredibly emotional affairs.

Pauline had a wonderful reunion with her friend, Christine, who she hadn’t seen since 1973. They fell back in to their relationship as if it had never been lost. They had exchanged Christmas cards each year until recently when Christine’s husband died of cancer and she rather lost the will to do anything social but they had a lovely couple of days.

Both highly trained cooks, Pauline was amused to find Chris was reluctant to cook for her and they were eating M&S meals instead. Next time, I will drive her there and they will include the other two girls of their college quartet. Christine is a mad keen Chelsea fan so I will be texting her tonight as the big match with City is played in Portugal.

Julia posted a picture of her lovely family. It makes me feel horribly old to realise that one was finishing 6th Form and another finishing 5th Year yesterday. They look delightful kids!

Sunday, 16th May, 2021

Woke up at 6.00 am to really heavy rain. We are forecast to be wet all day today. Daren’t go out because I had my hair cut yesterday and don’t want to destroy the style. Looks like we have the poorest weather today. The North of England have a dry morning at least. I’m going to be working in the gym today. Haven’t even put sun cream on this morning. For years I resisted using any. Typical man being careless with my health and reluctant to use cosmetics.

Living in Greece forced me to re-think that and age has now forced me to be really serious. My wife’s Brother-in-Law has had numerous melanomas cut out. Our lovely neighbour has a serious melanoma which has moved into his lymph glands which we know becomes very serious at that stage. I now put this all-day-long, factor 30 sunscreen on each morning. It means I can forget about it for the rest of the day. Feels a bit ‘girly’ but, at 70, I’m confident enough of my sexuality to cope.

In spite of relaxation of the Covid rules, the threat of a new variant is putting the government under pressure to reconsider its timelines. We really are getting stir-crazy. Travelling will be the only way to relieve it. I am desperate to go back to France. I am very desperate to go back to Athens and nothing will stop me going to the North of England in October. The foreign travel requires a Covid-passport of some sort.

For that reason, I have installed the NHS-app on my smartphone. I have resisted it until now but it says upfront, This is not the NHS COVID-19 track & trace app. If it was, I wouldn’t have considered it. However, installing this app on your smartphone or iPad provides access to one’s whole-life medical history. Actually, mine goes back as far as June 17th, 1980 when I had a bad road traffic accident. To a dates/data freak like me, it is 7th heaven. Of course, it also provides an immediate record of our Covid vaccination record which will be recognised/accepted at a number of airports and European borders.

Well, 10.30 am and the rain has stopped, the sun is out and the garden is 13C/55F and feels very pleasant even in shorts. This has allowed me to set up the smoker in the garden to finish off the smoked salmon side which has been 48hrs in preparation.

The side of the salmon is frozen for 24hrs and then cured in salt and herbs for 24 hrs. The final stage is 1 hr cold smoking with apple woodchips.

I can get addicted to smoked salmon but have to ration myself. Anything smoked runs the risk of one ingesting carcinogens so has to be eaten in moderation. Next time we might just eat it at the Gravadlax stage and forgo the smoking.

Monday, 17th May, 2021

Big Day. New reading glasses this morning. Difficult to control the excitement. For years I have looked over half-moon glasses at pupils and staff alike, thinking myself endearing or scary. Today, I will return to ‘normal’, full glasses again. I’ve also got to have a blood test first but I know I will pass that. I’ve got blood. Later we will collect a new train ticket for Pauline. She and her re-found friend have decided to make it a sleepover – if that’s the right term – and she will go on the Thursday and come back on the Friday. I will be Home Alone.

Yesterday, a window of warm sunshine lured us out for a walk. As we got to the furthest point from our house, the heavens opened and my hair was utterly destroyed. Couldn’t do a thing with it. I even had to wring my shorts and tee shirt out.

I have only had the sight in one eye all my life and a fear has been that it made me vulnerable when I got in to fights as I did regularly in my school days being a bit of a bully and when I was playing rugby. Nowadays, I fear cataracts and the, admittedly, limited dangers of their removal. When my Mother-in-Law had her cataracts removed, she was warned that there was a reasonably high risk of complications and loss of sight. That would be catastrophic for me. Fortunately, my recent test showed no deterioration and my long sight has actually improved over the years.

Ten years ago this month, we were cultivating our Greek garden where I was growing Mediterranean vegetables, maintaining our olive trees and picking fresh lemons from our trees. There is something quite magical for an English person to grow and pick citrus fruit. So much Mediterranean cooking uses lemons and their juice but to just pick them from your own tree when you need them is unforgettable.

While I was growing up at Grammar School, the intellectual choice of ‘pop’ music was not the nascent Beatles or Rolling Stones but the poetry and politics of Bob Dylan. I would like to say I loved it but I was young and trying to develop thinking processes. The older lads initiated me in to the Dylan/student culture which culminated in the 1968 student revolution, the Paris riots and General Strike.

The BBC Radio 4 Today programme I wake up to was celebrating Bob Dylan turning 80 this week. A real sign of the times. Revolution aging and tamed although the lingering line still sings to me:

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m so much younger now …

Bob Dylan – My Back Pages – 1967

There is a real sense in which aging takes us back to to our youth and childhood. The things I complicated in my youth, things I looked for hidden meaning in suddenly reveal themselves as far simpler and more accessible. The joy in simple pleasures becomes so much more obvious and attainable than youthful angst would allow. In age, there is no more reason to pretend. I’m younger than that now.

Turned out to be a lovely, sunny day and much warmer than the North of England at 17C/63F. Had a delightful walk with loud bird song all around as well as a gym workout. Life can be wonderful at times. I’m feeling really optimistic!

Tuesday, 18th May, 2021

Gorgeous morning with blue sky and strong sunshine. Everywhere is flooded in warmth and light. For me too, as if a trigger has been switched, I am flooded with happiness. It is a wonderful feeling of optimism. My reluctance to embrace life has been swept away and I will attack it with a will.

We were up at 6.00 am and already this morning we have had a Sainsbury’s delivery. After writing my Blog, and drinking coffee, I am going to spend the morning outside in the garden. The lawns are growing rapidly now and all need cutting again. I have herbs to plant out and pot up. The hedges need trimming and there are plants to be dead-headed. Later, we’ll go for a walk and I will do a workout in the gym. I am determined to improve.

The Memory Box threw up two images from 2010 at the Greek house this morning. We put our Yorkshire home up for sale in 2009. It was a good, big, 5-bedroomed house in a nice place but it didn’t sell. It was a difficult time for the housing market and it was a year before we had a single viewing. In 2010, I took the decision that we could wait no longer and cut the price. We then set off for our drive to Greece. Of course, just as we drove through Italy, we received a call from our estate agent to say an offer had been tabled for the house.

With our spirits raised, we drove on to Sifnos. Once there and with the internet re-established, all the negotiations were conducted via the net. I was fortunate to have a new computer and scanner in my Greek office and able to provide all the documents necessary. Because we were downsizing, we wanted to sell as much of the furniture as possible. We produced a price list and the family moving in bought virtually everything. It was a great result and put us in a happy position for the next stage.

It’s funny how writing about these experiences is cathartic for me, helps me come to terms with them and move on. I love writing. I think I could write an exciting and interesting film script as much about the future as the past. Having kept James Joyce’s, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man with me since my youth, I think I have one in me. Can’t put it off much longer. Running out of time.

The day has been wonderfully warm and sunny from start to finish. We did all the gardening. A lovely, little lady came and took pints of blood from us for the Oxford Covid survey we are taking part in. This is the anti-body test. We also did the swab test. We sat the testing lady in the sunshine of our back garden where the micro climate gives us a delightful atmosphere. I managed to extract her life story while she was there. At school she was teased about being a boy because her surname was Paul. She was also teased about being French because her first name is Renu. It doesn’t seem to have harmed her. She’s a lovely girl with a beautiful name.

Wednesday, 19th May, 2021

The morning has started off damp but warm. We are told it will get much better as the day progresses. Not a great deal on today so I will be concentrating on exercise and, maybe, a bit of gardening. I heard yesterday that I’d passed Monday’s blood test with flying colours so I will live another week. Also yesterday, I forgot to include my little sister, Caroline, who lives in southern Ireland and was a shocking 59 years old. I hope she had an enjoyable birthday.

Any regular reader of the Blog will know that I am a news junkie. I listen to news, watch news, read news and analyse news, Blog news, Tweet news and post it on Messenger, Facebook and Instagram as the day progresses. I follow local newspapers from places I have lived or meaningfully visited. I believe it is important to keep the cultural identity one forges in life up to date. As you will see below, a couple of recent items really caught my eye.

• The Derby Telegraph
• The Ripon Gazette
• The Chester Chronicle
• The Oldham Chronicle
• The Huddersfield Examiner
• The Littlehampton Gazette
• Sifnos News
• Athens News

In the early 1970s, I was introduced to the city of Chester. I think I had visited it once with my parents who wanted me to understand the history en route to a holiday in Wales. The second time round and with real generosity of spirit, I was taken to the racecourse, on the river where I found I was a natural oarsman, to Sealand Road to watch Chester City draw 0-0 and the shops and bars of the city at Christmas time.

I remember being entranced by ‘exotic’ products I found in one shop and bought my Mum a tin of octopus salad as part of a Christmas present. The moment she saw it, her nose turned up, it went in the pantry and was never seen again. It was a time when the English thought garlic was for smelly-breathed Italians and olive oil was purely medicinal. Nowadays, Octopus salad is high on my list of delicacies and we cook and eat it regularly.

Lovely warm sunshine for our walk and gardening this afternoon. Sun just transforms everything as very few other things do.

Thursday, 20th May, 2021

Feel a bit sad and frustrated this morning. I like to be in control of my life and the decisions that decide how it progresses. My wife would say I am a control-freak. Currently, I feel totally out of control. Others have me in their hands. The general direction of travel is essentially imprisonment at the moment. This vacillating, Tory government are making European travel look like a distant mirage. Keen to view Spanish properties. Desperate to get to France soon. Absolutely determined to fly to Athens later. I can go but with huge penalties. My heart says I refuse to be dominated by anything or anybody. My head says chill. Calm down and wait.

Just to provoke me, conditions today conspire in some sick joke. Outside, it feels cool in the off-sea breeze and the sky is overcast. Strong winds and rain are forecast for later in the day. My Inbox delivers an advert from Superfast Ferries for ‘privileged customers’ offering reductions on early booking. We have made 30 crossings from Ancona in Italy to Patras on the Greek Peloponnese. Having driven 1000 miles to get on the ship, we rewarded ourselves with a Luxury cabin for the 24 hr trip down the Adriatic. Today, a return trip would cost us €1,200.00/£1035.00 which is a hefty but necessary price. I would pay it without thinking if it got me anywhere.

At the same time, my Memory Box throws up photos from this day in 2010. We had been in our Greek house for 6 years and things were working smoothly. We thought life was developing quietly and well. I felt I had just transferred my UK life to the idyll of a small, Greek island. It allowed my wife to continue doing the things she enjoyed in her English home – cooking, making marmalade, etc. and I had my Office, computer, the internet, writing and photography.

Here, my wife is ordering a new fridge-freezer which was delivered to our house roped to the back of a very strong Greek man. I remember its maker was not very inspiringly called Pitsos but it turned out to be excellent.

People and events intervened and we felt compelled to sell and retreat back to our UK home. And so it is now. People and events are pulling the strings.

Friday, 21st May, 2021

Need some warmth from somewhere. Strong, chilly winds are stalking the area. Mediterranean it is not! Been up since 6.00 am and the winds have been strong all night.

Fifty years ago this Autumn at midnight on a very dark and chilly evening, I was hurtling down the motorway from Ripon to West Yorkshire in an old Morris Minor. In the car were Nigel, Kevin and Chris.Tolley? I had no idea where we were going and, largely, neither did they. I had run from the Cottages to the student bar for last orders. They had been extended by an hour after closing time and alcohol had clouded our judgement. We embarked on some madcap scheme to just drive anywhere. I remember things being collected en route like traffic cones and toilet seats and stuffed into the boot. We were really living life on the edge. We ended up in Huddersfield, at Kevin’s request, outside an all-night chip shop opposite the University. It was near where Kevin went to school at Salendine Nook.

It was my first time in Huddersfield. I had not visited any other post-industrial, Northern town in my life. I remember this building pictured below which was just round the bend from the chip shop. It struck me as incredibly modern and forward-looking with its modernist, concrete frieze compared with the buildings of my home village. Actually, it had only been built months before we arrived. We didn’t stay long and were soon on a return trip up the motorway to a Service Station where we all ordered huge, fried Breakfasts and recalled tall tales of the night’s high jinx. Fairly typical student stuff, I suppose, but significant enough for me to remember.

Sign of the times. The Huddersfield Examiner features photos of this structure being torn down exactly 50 years on. The concrete used has been found to be unsafe and the area will be redesigned. Huddersfield is moving on without us. Still our film script is evolving on a different path and, between us, we must make sure the future is good.

I embrace and welcome change. Standing still is never an option. We all have to move forward and extract every ounce of enjoyment from our lives. I was looking at one of the changes that modern life has meant for me echoed by my Bank Account. The modern world of communication is so important. I pay out each month quite a lot to send and receive information. None of us could have ever conceived of this 50 years ago.

	Monthly Cost
Daily copies of The Times on iPad x 2	£  26.00
TV Licence	£  12.00
Sky-Q	£  95.00
Mobile contracts x 2	£111.00
BT Phone/Broadband/Sport	£111.00
Web Site + Blog	£   30.00
	£385.00

Went down to the beach this morning just as the tide was receding. Very windy and rather cold.

There was sea foam all over the beach where the angry water had been. That is how life can be. We move forward, leave traces on the beach, recede, move forward ….

Saturday, 22nd May, 2021

This is one of the stranger and longer Blogs of the year. It begins with Socrates goes on to Take That and ends with the North Yorkshire Moors and Witches. They are very unlikely associates. However, it might be interesting to some.

I don’t believe in god. I don’t believe in an after-life. I don’t believe in completely free will. I have long believed in Determinism. When I say long, I remember really annoying my Mum at the Dinner table when I was 18 explaining the 17th Century Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Actually, Spinoza did believe in god and that all things were ordained by god denying his creations free will. As a Roman Catholic, denying people the freedom to do right and wrong is not an option. Heaven & Hell are there for a reason – to reward and punish – to morally control society.

Initially found in Socratic dialogue, Determinism is the belief that all human behaviours flow from genetic or environmental factors that, once they have occurred, they are very difficult or impossible to change. For example, a determinist might argue that a person’s genes make him or her anxious, alcoholic, overweight, aggressive, etc. A causal determinist would look for the prior environmental factors leading to murder, suicide, love, betrayal and would be unlikely to lean on concepts like evil and guilt or culpability.

Although my intellect accepts this theory, my spirit fights against it energetically. I have always thought strength of character and determination can effect change. It fits with my character. Bulls in china shops don’t take, No, for an answer. If I want something, I don’t accept failure very easily. I bend every sinew, intellectual or physical, to achieve it. And yet, maybe that whole approach is genetically programmed. It may be in my DNA. We are, after all, just miracles of matter.

Everyone, everyone, can you hear the soldiers coming
Everyone, everyone, every man and every woman
We all fall, in the end we’re just miracles of matter
So come on, let me love you….…This is the life we’ve been given
So open your heart and start loving
We can make a start if we only learn to listen

The Garden – Take that

You may see what sparked this bonkers Blog this morning. This song written and performed by Take That – not a group I would have come across without the coaxing of my wife, perfectly encapsulates the determinist/free-will dilemma in all of us. You can hear the soldiers (of time) coming because We all fall, in the end. We’re just miracles of matter. This is the life we’ve been given. presents the determinist case set against the free will of open your heart…We can make a start if we only learn to listen.

Yes, I know, just dismiss it as the whimpering of a sad, old lunatic. Return to the real world and dismiss this from your mind. I’m going in the gym to exorcise such demons but, before I do, just one more memory of exercise 50 years ago…. And, once again, it started in the Students bar.

It was Summer, 1971 and late – 10.50 pm. I left Byland corner hurriedly and sprinted to the bar. Something unusual was going on. People were gathering in unusual numbers. The Reverend Kent was there. It was as if I had stumbled into a religious meeting. After a couple of quick drinks, Kevin (Why did I listen to him?) said, Shall we go as well? Where, I had no idea. There was a coach outside with a large number of students on it dressed for hiking. I was in jeans, tee shirt and desert boots and a little light headed from two, quick drinks. Kevin & I went to the back of the coach, as usual, and I soon learnt that we were going to be doing the traditional Lyke Wake Walk but in darkness for the first 5 hours.

I had never heard of The Lyke Wake Walk and, by the next morning, I never wanted to hear of it again. It is a complete crossing of the North Yorkshire moors and a distance of, approximately, 40 miles. Kevin had been told that the army had run the entire course in under 5 hours. He suggested that we try to beat it…. while dressed for an evening in the bar and in total darkness. All I remember was the beauty of Fylingdales at night, the total exhaustion as we finished and the huge blisters that lasted over a week. Still, I’m entitled to a certificate officially naming me as a Dirger. The girls were pronounced Witches but I’ve no idea who that applied to.

Sunday, 9th May, 2021

Weak sunshine but quite warm at 16C/61F this morning. Went out for an early walk which I will follow by a hard, gym session. Our regular route takes us through our Development to the wooded perimeter and we noticed a new house with scaffolding up for the past few days. A couple of days ago, an array of solar panels were attached to the roof. We moved in 5 years ago. The Development was completed 18 months later. Most of the later houses had solar panels included because of a change of government policy and subsidies. The back of our house is south-facing and would be ideal for solar power generation.

This morning we noticed the owners in their front garden as we walked. I took the opportunity to speak to them. They were delighted to talk about it and not the least affronted that my first question was about the price. Everything here – 12 panels, storage battery, cabling and smart meters fitted and working for just £8,500.00. Sounds a bargain. The panels supply the storage battery which supplies the house during the day and the National grid during the night which reduces household bills and brings in a small income. Unfortunately, the cost/benefit analysis shows that it would take 11.5 years to break even. At the age of 81, I suspect I won’t be too worried about cheap electricity. I have much more important ambitions to achieve by then!

It is looking rather uncertain for foreign travel at the moment. Spain may have to wait for next Spring. Our first trip will almost certainly be to France. Brexit means I will have to smuggle most of my wine purchase but I’m not drinking at all at the moment so I won’t need too much anyway.

I have a store which would provide me with a bottle each day for 3 years. I know what you’re thinking. Who could manage with just one bottle a day? At this rate, I might just become a White Ribboner. I now preach moderation. We are still holding on to the possibility of our trip to Athens in late August and we will spend some time in the North of England in October.

Monday, 10th May, 2021

Lovely, warm and sunny start to the morning just after 6.00 am. Mondays are always so exciting – INR self test, putting the bins out, exercise. Providing all the services. I need a trip away! Actually, I think I need some excitement and a bit of danger to liven me up.

Instead, I am going to Rustington Specsavers for an eye test and to buy a couple of new pairs of reading glasses. Nothing has changed in my eyesight for years. I have been wearing reading glasses for 15 or so years but my distance has been improving with age and I rarely wear my main glasses at all.  Booked 8.30 am appointments and arrived early. During the pandemic, Rustington, a small town dominated by the wealthy retired, has installed canopies over all the pavements so we don’t have to queue in the rain.

No need for canopies today. Warm sunshine and hardly any wrinklies up yet. Specsavers was fun. I was tested by a lovely, young girl called Shiela who had come from Hong Kong to do a Cambridge University degree 7 years ago but had stayed in UK as the situation on her home island deteriorated. She does return to see her family in the summer but things are getting worse and she’s not sure how long she can continue. She offered to take me with her next time, which was nice. My eyes were unchanged, by the way.

I wanted two, new pairs of reading glasses and the little girl doing that part of the service was from Colorado. I had already chosen my frames and was trying to get an invite to her family home but didn’t make a lot of headway. She was definitely less friendly. There are some very unfriendly people in the world … or is it just me?

While I was out, a message came in on my phone. Love getting messages on my phone. It was from Dr Rob who bought our house in Helme, West Yorkshire over 20 years ago. It had almost an acre of garden and we had spent a fortune on plants. Just before we left, we had put in some small rhododendron plants. Just 21 years later, he sent me a photo via Twitter of a couple of those plants flowering happily.

I have a very selective memory. I always remember plant names. People accuse me of forgetting important events but I remember the genus of the crimson rhododendron was Britannia. I replied to Dr Rob with that information and apologised because we are both vehemently anti-Brexit although it wasn’t conceived of in the 1990s. He replied saying he would have to replace it with a Europa one if available. I have found Rhododendron Europa and have agreed to take it up to him in October when we call in for coffee.

Looks like I’ll have to book at least 4 if not 5 days to fit all our visits in. I want to take a tram ride for the first time to Manchester. Andy Burnham is pledged to extend the tram to Middleton now which ought to sway some voters’ minds when he moves on to lead the Labour Party.

Tuesday, 11th May, 2021

Lovely, lovely morning. Up to sunshine and blue sky. It was presaged by this gorgeous sky over the Marina last night.

Dave Roberts posted this of Rochdale last night which doesn’t bode well for his weather today.

Domestic things going on today include a Sainsbury’s delivery and a fresh fish delivery. Probably go out to the Garden Centre for fresh season’s herbs which no cook could be without.

Pauline is going to be connecting with her, old college friend by phone for the first time since 1973 when they went their different ways. She’s upstairs getting changed for the call. It’s fascinating the difference between the sexes. In these nervous situations, Men tend to think they can busk it and often fail badly. Women pay attention to things that give them confidence and ‘looking good/feeling good about themselves’ is one of those things. I have no doubt that Pauline and her friend, ‘Blondie’ will make a great success of it because they both really want to. The next stage will be for them to meet in person.

This time 12 years ago, we were retired and preparing to drive off to Greece for the Summer. We had two, major concerns: Pauline’s lovely Mum who was 96 years old and struggling and selling our Huddersfield house. Just up the road from Mum-in-Law’s flat was this newly appointed care home. We didn’t tell her but went for a visit to check it out. I got the shock of my life.

As we were shown round, a woman recognised me. I recognised her. She was our former Head of Governors, Ellen Brierly. I didn’t know the context of why she was there but it soon became apparent. She started spouting miles of educational language and I listened respectfully. Suddenly, I began to realise that she was using all the right words but in all the wrong order. Nothing she said made sense. She kept saying, It is nice to see you again. When I said, I had to move on with my tour, her old face crumpled and she expressed disappointment. I was rescued by a nurse/orderly coming in, taking Ellen by the arm and saying, Shall I read the newspaper to you? Another one whispered that Ellen was suffering badly with Dementia. Ellen lived another year sinking slowly into oblivion. Pauline’s Mum lived another year but stayed in her flat and was sharp as a button right up to the end.

Wednesday, 12th May, 2021

Pleasant morning but I’ve woken up aching all over. Yesterday, I really pushed myself in the gym and I’m paying for it this morning. Woke up in the middle of the night aching and found it hard to get back to sleep. As a consequence, didn’t get up until 7.00 am. Outside it is 13C/55F and weakly sunny but is forecast to be a pleasant day. Going to do a bit of gardening potting up the herbs that we bought yesterday – Sage, Thyme, Oregano and Rosemary. Bit early for Basil which we use on salads and to make pesto. Don’t know why but I can’t seem to get in to it as much this year.

My wife is unhappy with the results of her first haircut in 6 months. She went to her usual hairdresser but thought the cut was poor. When we were in the North, she went to Vidal Sassoon in Manchester and later in Leeds.

There isn’t one here without her going to London. I wanted her to go to the salon in Covent Garden but she’s found a Sassoon-trained stylist near us and is going to have her second cut in a week there on Thursday morning.If that doesn’t work, we are off to the city. The International Creative Director who charges £320.00 (sharp intake of breath) per cut in Covent Garden was a young trainee in Manchester when Pauline first went there.

Memory Box is painful today. On this day in 2010, we drove in baking sunshine down to Vathi Bay for Lunch at one of our favourite tavernas, Okeanida – The Wave.

Thursday, 13th May, 2021

As expected, it is wet this morning. Yesterday, I managed to rake, cut and feed the lawns and my neighbour’s. The rain this morning is just in time to water the feed granules in. Have woken up to bits of seagull strewn across the beautifully striped grass but no body – must have been just a skirmish.

Pauline is off for her second haircut. I am kicking my heels at home. Actually, I am in the gym punishing myself as any self-respecting lapsed Catholic should be doing! Ironic to see rain today because it has been so warm that I have designated it officially the start of shorts & Teeshirt season which will, hopefully, last well in to October. No clothes for 6 months!

It is more than a year since we last went to the David Lloyd Health Club. Because we have constructed our own gym with high quality equipment, we don’t miss their apparatus. We do miss meeting nice people a little but we especially miss swimming in the heated outdoor pool which we used all year round. For more than 20 years, we have discussed a pool in the back garden at various houses. Not a huge pool, of course, but one which is becoming increasingly popular from Endless Pools. An outlet has been established in our local Garden Centre Business Park. We called in yesterday.

An endless pool is only about 12ft long and contains a powerful motor which creates a current of water strong enough to keep the most powerful swimmer static but afloat. The full exercise is possible without ever having advanced along the pool at all. There are seats at one end for a jacuzzi and a motorised canopy to keep out the rain. Effectively, only one person can swim at a time but that doesn’t really matter, because, if one drowns the other is on hand to sign the death certificate.

The cost, including installation would be around £50,000.00 which is a lot of money and cost effectiveness has to be considered. Even if it was used for an hour a day, every day for 10 years, it is still quite expensive. Ten years membership of the Health Club for two people would only cost about £20,000.00. Assuming the Covid threat goes away, it might be better to just take up our membership again exclusively for swimming but so many people around us are installing Living-Room-sized Hot Tub / Jacuzzis that we thought we might just go one better.

I don’t know anything about Ed Sheeran although I have heard of him but I came across this with Bocelli and really enjoyed it. Thought I’d store it here.

Friday, 14th May, 2021

Up early for Sainsbury’s delivery. Rained over night and quite overcast this morning. Domestic life continues with another side of salmon being prepared and cured for smoking. We are going out to a pottery store which specialises in huge, garden pots which we passed on the road to Gatwick Airport. With foreign travel increasingly looking difficult, pots may remain viable for the summer this year and our expanded garden patio is looking a bit bleak so pots and plants will soften it.

Fortunately, Pauline was delighted with her 2^nd haircut yesterday. That’s saved some cash! It looks nice and it isn’t far from home so it makes life easier. The thought of a train into London every time was a bit daunting. She’s also arranged to meet her closest college friend for the first time since 1973. Her friend is widowed and very keen to meet up which is nice. She sounds a really lovely lady.

Anyway, Pauline is getting a train to Milton Keynes quite early in the morning on May 27^th. We were surprised how difficult it is to get there. Just driving, which wouldn’t be fun for her alone because it involves the M25 + M1, is a 2.5 hr journey. The train involves a change at Clapham Common and takes just over 3 hrs. To make it worthwhile, she will leave before 7.00 am and not get back until after 9.00 pm. Still, it sounds like it will be a lovely reunion and, hopefully, a continuing relationship beyond texting or Christmas cards. Perhaps, next time, I will drive her and meet the ‘girls’ myself.

I‘ve always wanted to drive to the south coast of the Greek Peloponnese. Especially, it would be lovely to stay in Kalamata which is famous for the best, Greek olive oil. The whole region has the most wonderful, all year-round climate. So many ambitions have got to be achieved soon when your 70 already. I read Greek newspapers most days to keep up with the country I’ve spent so much time in. An article this morning in Kathimerini featured a luxury residential development for the over-65s.

It has all the fitness services – gyms/indoor and outdoor pools, integrated Spa/Massage/Beauty Treatment – that one could want to stay alive for decades to enjoy the experience plus luxury restaurants for those reluctant cooks and cleaning services. Properties include wifi, satellite tv, etc. and are set in olive groves and citrus gardens.
(Price on Application)

So often the saying that Life isn’t a rehearsal has impacted my life. Everything I do feels like a rehearsal all the time. Next time I will do it differently. Next time I will do it better. Next time I will succeed. It is so hard to realise that we write our own film script. It doesn’t just happen to us. Why does it take so long, until the age of 70, to realise that seizing the day is so important? The rehearsal is over and real time is here!

Saturday, 15th May, 2021

What a poor day. Grey skies and feeling cold. I don’t think we are getting much above 13C/55F in mid-May. A year ago, temperatures were nearer 22C/70F and we were on the beaches of the south coast.

We went out to buy things for the garden yesterday. First to a pot seller where we splashed out about £150.00 on 6 largish pots. Not quite sure what will go in them yet. We came back and visited our local garden centre of bags of soil and grit in readiness for planting them up.

I don’t quite seem to have the enthusiasm for gardening that I have had in recent years. I don’t really know why although it might have something to do with my strict diet and exercise regime. I seem to be tired all the time. But I am losing weight which is spurring me on. My mistake was marrying a fantastic cook. Our meal yesterday was griddled swordfish steaks with wonderful asparagus spears. How can one avoid eating too much? I really should have married someone who couldn’t cook at all. Now, I would be nibbling the occasional sandwich and looking stick-thin.

I heard of someone described as a gym bunny the other day. You would never describe me as a bunny anything ever! However, I am improving. Thought for the Day this morning had this aphorism: It never rains roses. If you want more roses, you have to plant them yourself. I am trying hard to plant roses with the faith that they will eventually flower.

Had a stream of Direct Messenger contacts flying around this morning. Currently it is the best way to stay in touch with people who are distantly located. This morning it was my cousin in the south of France and my brother in Maidenhead intervening in my orange juice & coffee. Yesterday, it was a girl from college, who I haven’t seen for nearly 50 years, sending me an animated-gif. My mind struggles to get to grips with the significance of time and space but it is fun.

I record, tabulate, Calendar, Blog all the events of my life. Many people find it weird, amusing, sad but I can’t help it. I love to be able to recall events that my memory only hazily brings back. Sometime, without my records, I find that I have totally redesigned an event so that it has little relation to what actually happened. This morning, the memory box reminded me that just 3 years ago today, we were checking in to the Valencia Palace Hotel for what turned out to be a lovely, short break. It actually feels so much longer ago.

I found myself listening to Leonard Cohen yesterday. It is sad almost mournful sense of loss that permeates his songs. It certainly reminds me of my old friend, Nigel, who is an artist in North Yorkshire. It doesn’t help. I cry a lot anyway. I was interested and rather reassured listening to Gary Lineker this morning describing how he cries when he’s happy and he cries when he’s sad. Thank goodness I am not the only one. It is not a weakness but a strength. Pretending to be strong when you’re not is a weakness.

Sunday, 2nd May, 2021

Lovely, warm & sunny morning. Going to do some gardening – feeding the lawns which I cut yesterday, completing the hedge trimming and generally preparing plants for the summer. Going to do this before our walk later in the day.

I’ve got a couple more entries that involve College days so grit your teeth if you hate it and look away if it gets you down.

There were a lot of Johns in my College intake. In 1951, I think it was the most popular First Name in the country. This young man was a John but popularly known as Tash – I don’t know why! What really struck me from this photo was how ‘old’ it looked. Frighteningly so. The curtains, the chair, the television and the calendar on the wall all scream another age. Who has a printed calendar nowadays? We use online, synchronised calendars

It is so hard to accept we change with age. Many of us are far too vain to expose ourselves to scrutiny. At least these old men were brave enough to do it. I have written before of my struggles against age. I always hated old men walking round with their mouths open looking vacant. In recent years, I have caught myself doing exactly that and have a campaign with myself to curb it not entirely successfully. If you catch me, hit me!

Monday, 3rd May, 2021

I have to go back up to Surrey this morning to help my sister-in-law with an IT problem. She is 84 and very wrinkly plus partially sighted but she fights to use modern technology more than many of her age. It is important not to let yourself fall behind. Fight to keep up. Giving in is decidedly aging. P went to the Blue Coat school in Oldham at a time when people generally had no conception of a computer at all. It is a steep learning curve and I applaud her for making the effort.

You hear of people who don’t even have email accounts. Can you believe that? I couldn’t cope without one. Actually, I’ve got three for different people. How do people buy things online if they don’t have an email to send a confirmation or invoice to? How do you do online banking, investing, reading an online newspaper, having a BBC account without an email?  You can’t even register an iPad without an email. All our televisions are online and surely you need an email to signup to Netflix and Spotify. How does anyone cope without one?

Admittedly, I have been involved in IT and computers for 40 years. My whole life is controlled by and recorded on them. I am a natural teacher and I cannot bear to see intelligent people failing to keep up with the technological world. A few days with me and they would be converted. It is one of the things that you must do before you die. In fact, it will prolong your life. Book Medical Appointments online, record them on your web calendar along with your hair dresser appointments. It gives you such control.

Being one of the 20 men (boys) in a college of around 600 women was quite a stressful experience but I survived it. The men, being in such a minority did develop a group identity and I was one of 5 Johns. 25% of the male intake were called John. I am in contact with some of them. My old friend, John Ridley, who held my head over the toilet that night I got drunk will always be on my contact list.

I haven’t seen John Coates for years now although he bought me an egg-coddler as a wedding present and I have never seen John Holden since 1972. I don’t think anyone has apart from John Ridley.

I don’t think I had one conversation with John Morris while I was at college but he was told of my political views by John Ridley and contacted me to discuss them. I have really enjoyed corresponding with him. He is an interesting man who has travelled all over Europe as an Education Adviser and has lots of interesting tales to tell.

Received a Messenger contact from Peter Holgate at 7.00 this morning. I’m not sure why but he is trying to keep his spirits up.

He’s a sad kid! Actually, if I’m honest, we are all a bit sad at the loss of our youth. We just struggle to keep cheerful.

Tuesday, 4th May, 2021

Lovely, sunny, mild but breezy morning. Going to do some work outside, a walk and then time in the gym. Got to keep active. Might nip down to the beach to see a fairly rough sea crashing dramatically on the esplanade.

I wrote recently how much I enjoyed and was quite surprised to enjoy a 3 series drama called Keeping Faith. I casually watched Series 3, episode 1 and then realised it was important to watch from the start and I was so pleased I did. The narrative is gripping; the central character is compelling and I found the soundtrack quite obsessive. It reaches deep down inside me quite frighteningly.

Who has ever heard of Amy Wadge? I’ve captured my favourite songs and embedded them here for you to try out but they are all worth listening to and available on YouTube. You can even access it without an email address because you don’t need to register.

I am not an actor. I can’t pretend to be someone else convincingly. I find it hard enough to play myself at times. I had to do subsidiary Drama as a concomitant of English Literature. Right from the start, I wasn’t comfortable with rolling around on a Drama Hall floor pretending to be imaginary animals, animated trees and reluctant lions. My strength and interest was in analysing text.

The Drama teacher was a 30-something, rather scatty and scruffy young woman who always looked like she had just got up. Soon after we left, she married an air force officer from nearby RAF Topcliffe and moved away. I understand she is still alive although her husband died quite a while ago of cancer. She got us to put on our own productions for the end of course. Most selected a piece from an established play. I, of course, in my arrogance, wrote my own on the subject of Sentimentality. It was a typically pretentious teenager piece which I would cringe at now.

Unfortunately, it was low tide when we got down to the beach but had a lovely walk for an hour in wonderful sunshine.

Wednesday, 5th May, 2021

Absolutely beautiful, warm morning again after wall-to-wall sunshine yesterday. Watched a good game at Man. City last night after they had scraped snow from the pitch at Maine Road. I support United but wanted City to win last night and they were excellent.

The sunshine makes me want to walk. Actually, I will drop my wife at the supermarket and then set off for my own walk in the sunshine. No clothes to be returned today. The past few days seem to have hit a rich seam for her. The bank account lists:

• Weird Fish Ltd
• Crew Clothing
• Kettlewell Colours
• Joe Browns
• SeaSalt
• Wrap
• Whitestuff

… and that’s just this month. She’s also looking for a new, Garmin smartwatch so we are going to Currys/PCWorld this morning.

Actually, I’ve got a couple more day’s entries of College photos to store. Today I am focussing on girls/women. Of course, throughout the 3 years, I was fairly saintly and really didn’t get to know many of these girls at all. As a result, I am struggling to name them. Maybe others can. For example, I visited the Cottages once or twice in 1972 but haven’t got a clue who this is.

This woman/girl was definitely in Cottages and called Annette. I can half recognise her face:

The Sports Teams are largely a mystery to me. In the first cricket photo, I can name just 5 girls:

In the second photo I can only name 4:

This posting is a bit niche but I hope some people will appreciate it. It’s always nice to reminisce occasionally. 

The memory box stabbed me with a 9-year-old memory this morning as it featured these photos from 2012:

We had already been in our Greek house for a month and enjoyed Greek Easter celebrations. The weather had been wonderful and we had completely repainted the outside of our house until it was a blinding, Cycladic white. It needed doing every 3 or 4 years because of the strength of the sun. Happy days!

Thursday, 6th May, 2021

In our house, I have nothing to do with spending money only saving and investing it. Total control of spending was handed over to my wife on Day-1 of our marriage. Money really doesn’t worry me. I wanted her to feel secure in the event of something happening to me. I am confident that I will always have enough for what I want to do. When she first rescued me from the Brothel, I had 3 or 4 uncashed monthly salary cheques in a draw. I really didn’t need them. We have joint accounts but my wife does all the monitoring of them. I set targets for our savings and investments. I do the research and preparation. I know which investments will pay what over which timescale. Pauline micro-manages the current account recording every single outgoing daily on an accountancy software program just as her mother did on scraps of paper for years.

Retiring, inheriting, paying off the mortgage, selling the Greek house have combined to make us feel totally relaxed. It is a lovely feeling and one within which I can happily hand over all responsibility. So, the list of shops I posted yesterday that purchases have been made from recently was nothing other than a casual observation.

I had two, new pairs of trainers ordered for me. They arrived yesterday and they are fine. They’re trainers. When I went to store them in my shoe cupboard, I found I had three new pairs already there unopened. I won’t need any for years now. Note to feet: don’t change size!

Just to make her smile, I left an accusatory symbol of her reckless spending on the stairs this morning. She was completely unashamed and unapologetic about them. Apparently, they were bargains. I will be 80 before I have outworn them. Will I still be running? You can be absolutely sure I will. I will not give in until I drop!

Three years ago, there was a lot of excitement amongst the Ripon alumni. York St John University invited past students of Ripon who graduated before 1980 to apply to have their Certificates upgraded to Honorary Degrees. The excitement generated was so great, it bordered on the orgasmic. Arrangements were made months in advance. Wardrobes were co-ordinated, gowns & mortars booked and meals arranged. I didn’t go. I didn’t need an honorary degree and I didn’t want to be spooked by ghosts of my past. Little did I know.

These young things without a care in the world thought they could carry the Common Room furniture, paintings and standard lamps out onto the lawns and have their pictures taken. Oh, how we laughed!

Now they are aged and world weary. They will all have seen, countered and survived life’s problems. I have been fascinated to hear about some of them. Not one of us escapes them. And although I’m broken, I am still breathing…

2019 saw the 50th anniversary of our year’s entrance to the college. I was abroad but was sent some photos of the day.

Few of these people have met for 50 long years and are suddenly converging on their past. It is a hard concept to struggle with. I wonder how they related to each other.

Friday, 7th May, 2021

Sometimes life can feel so optimistic. At the age of 70, it is important to have new challenges to look forward to. I am beginning to see my way forward to setting some new goals. Fitness and weight loss are high on the agenda. I’m really punishing myself at the moment. Just one, small meal mid-afternoon and about 30% more exercise. I’ve gone through the hard part when mind and body fight to adjust and am in the sweet spot of actually enjoying it. It’s going to be a very energetic Summer.

Went out to vote twice yesterday. The first time, the queues were so long, we turned back. On each occasion, we walked. It was about a 15 mins walk each way and, until recently, I wouldn’t have considered doing anything other than driving. Now, I can’t believe I did that. Walking was so enjoyable. I’m now covering about 200 miles per month. My smart watch and phone app set the targets. I am a sucker for targets. I have to meet/beat them. Sad really, isn’t it?

This morning, my wife is having her first haircut for 6 months. She has got so used to longer hair that she has decided not to have much off. Still, it will make her feel better. My attempts to reunite her with friends from her London College have worked out spectacularly. She exchanges almost daily emails with Blondie aka Christine who was her best friend at college and will soon be arranging to meet all three girls who live close together in Milton Keynes. I’m really pleased for her. At least my research works sometimes.

Before her appointment, we walked on the promenade. The Worthing ‘Eye’ is back up for the Season.

While Pauline was in the hairdressers, I was having a wonderful time in the sunshine pacing the totally empty rooftop of the multi-story car park overlooking the sea. Suddenly, a car park worker appeared in High Vis. jacket and approached me very cautiously.

Are you alright, Sir? he asked.
I’m absolutely fine, I replied.
Only, he said, we’ve been monitoring you on the cameras for the past 20 mins and we were a bit worried about you.
Why?
We thought you might be thinking of jumping.

I was so touched that I gave him a hug. Bet they’ve got that on camera as well. I know I look desperate and, probably, I am but it would have taken something to get me scaling the barriers if I wanted to die. I don’t.

I have so much to live for. The reasons to live seem to increase every day. Might be a bit depressed about the Hartlepool byelection and the fact even some intelligent people think Boris Johnson is doing a good job but jumping to one’s death is on another level!

Saturday, 8th May, 2021

What a wonderful morning. The world has changed! It is pouring with rain – quite a rare event. At 6.30 am, the lights are on in the kitchen for the first time for weeks. Water is bouncing down on the patio and Breakfast is liquid too. I am losing weight rapidly and looking to the future. It was a lovely day yesterday and they will get increasingly better now. The Summer is coming. The rain is just an intermediate but necessary stage.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the artwork I had in past houses and how it hadn’t seemed appropriate in more modern homes. Before the pre-Raphaelite period moved into the radical edge of James Whistler it had dissipated into the indulgence of Lawrence Alma Tadema and Frederick Lord Leighton and the walls of our house depicted that.

Gradually, we moved a number of pictures to our Greek home. Ultimately, everything went to the Hospice in Worthing. I’m not scared of doing away with the old and starting afresh. To get what one wants, sometimes breaking things is the only way. It can be a strength and a weakness.

So it was that our next two properties have had blank, white walls for a decade. Having lived in galleried walls for so long, it has been quite a release. However, we are edging towards something new. I don’t know if you like Hockney because for a long time I didn’t.

However, over this decade of purity at home, Hockney has been working his way into my consciousness. This is especially significant because he has refused to accept his age and, unlike many wrinklies, now works exclusively with his iPad to create his pictures. For that reason, the larger ‘canvasses’ are constructed of panels from the screen of an iPad.

Hockney, in his 80s, now lives in Normandy and he has spent the pandemic creating scores of pictures. He has a new exhibition of this latest work in London which I’ll have to visit. Something else to look forward to.

My dear friends in Greater Manchester will be pleased to know that not only did Andy Burnham retain his Mayoralty by a proportion of 4-1 against his nearest challenger but Labour retained control of the majority of councils across the borough. They held on to power in Rochdale, Bury, Oldham, Salford, Tameside, Trafford , Manchester and Wigan. The people of GM are eminently sensible of course.

Sunday, 25th April, 2021

A really good sleep last night and woke up refreshed to a lovely morning. Didn’t last long. All but the main Sky-Q box were refusing to work. Breakfast orange juice, tea and coffee accompanied by frantic resetting of all the boxes without success. As soon as you consult the website, it says check your internet connection. How it is possible to read that website without one, I don’t know. Anyway, I have as strong an internet feed as it’s possible to have in UK. Fibre to the door providing Gigabit – well 940mbs download and 120mbs upload – delivery. 

I phoned Sky Technical Help. I was answered by a lovely young woman who I soon found out was 26 years old and called Katy. She was working from Leeds but came from Bradford. She had been intending to get married over a year ago but had been forced to postpone it twice because of Covid and was hoping to go ahead this June.

There are quite long gaps between doing some resetting of the equipment and waiting for the result. We chatted away quite happily. Suddenly, and I am rather slow, I realised she was flirting with me. I said, I am 70 you know. She said I didn’t sound 70 and asked me how I spent my retirement. As I told her about all the travelling I did, she said, I need to get to know you. I told her I would arrange another Sky technical problem before I set off abroad again just to give her the option. She ended the conversation with, Is there anything else I can do for you? before collapsing into a fit of the giggles. For anyone else considering it, this is how to raise the spirits of a sad, old man. The technical problem still isn’t solved, by the way. They are sending an engineer out for that.

Aging can be scary. My wife is obsessed with it. Everyone says she looks 20 years younger than her age but she worries about wrinkles, sagging skin on her arms, sun spots on her skin, lines around her eyes. The two young ladies above were in the 3rd year when we arrived at College. They were thought to be ‘movers & shaker’ by some. Moving and shaking changes its connotation as we age. We just have to learn to embrace it. Fortunately, aging has passed me by and I have retained all my youthful features!

Monday, 26th April, 2021

Wonderful start to the day. Beautiful sky, warm sunshine and …. the lovely girl I spoke to at Sky yesterday had ‘fixed’ all 4 Q-boxes over night. I suspect that she arranged for the software to be ‘flash’ upgraded remotely. All done. I might have to phone her this morning to say thank you. I am getting better at phone calls.

Memory is a mystery to me. Somethings were so delightful that I will never forget them. Somethings were so unbearably painful that I can never wipe them from my mind. In between, there is this continuum of pleasant and dispiriting experiences that quickly fade into the morass of time. That is what the Blog is for and that is what the Cloud storage system serves.

In ‘normal’ times, we would go to France 3 or 4 times a year shopping. We always have a suite in a pleasant hotel on the outskirts of Coquelles with wonderful, well-kept grounds. It is a short drive from the Tunnel and major shopping outlets. Food & wine is the very stuff of life. My Memory Box delivered this scene this morning.

I remember it well although it is more than 12 months since we stayed there. What I didn’t remember was that, on this day 4 years ago we arrived in a heavy hailstorm.

We did some shopping, had a wonderful meal in the most unpretentious restaurant before checking in at the hotel.

As we entered the hotel car park, we were greeted by these little creatures who were herding a flock of chicks supervised by a fat, tabby cat who showed no interest in eating them. Only in France would one not be surprised by this scene although, come to think of it, could have been a donkey or goat in Greece but without the tarmac.

These little memories get us through our lives and keep the major movements at bay to surface in the waking hours.

Tuesday, 27th April, 2021

Today is the 13^th anniversary of my Mum’s death. The pain of it has faded now as it becomes a blur of memories. My mother was articulate, educated, forceful (controlling even), snobbish, Conservative and conservative, strongly Roman Catholic. She gave me a very stable childhood which she took too far. She really subscribed to the Jesuit, Ignatius of Loyolla, maxim: Give me the child for the first seven years and I’ll give you the man. She tried to control every area of our lives from how we dressed and ate to how we thought. She was quite clear to me that my girlfriends weren’t appropriate and made it clear to them as well.

For someone like me, who inherited her articulacy and strength of character, it was like a red rag to bull. Anything my Mother said, liked, thought, believed, had to be totally rejected and opposed. This particularly centred around religious rejection. I was impressed by the James Joyce character, Stephen Daedalus who rejected his Mother’s entreaty even on her death bed to come back to Roman Catholicism by repeating Lucifer’s Non Serviam. This meant that we weren’t close after I left home. I went home very rarely other than in emergencies although I did ring her twice a week to make sure she was alright. I was aware of my filial duty.

Right to the very end, having survived umpteen medical problems including cancer and bad falls, she continued to do things her own way. I regularly entreated her to sell her house and move into a community of people. She lost her temper and put the phone down. Even at the end; unable to breath and suffering from worsening Pneumonia, she went to hospital without telling most of us and she was effectively dead before I could get to the hospital. It is one of my big regrets that I didn’t get to say goodbye to her in person. However, I wrote and delivered the Eulogy in one of the few times I have been in a church since leaving home. It did give me some sort of closure.

I was amazed at the views of my brothers and sisters after Mum’s death. I had always thought she saw me as a failure and all of them as more successful. It turns out that they had each been given that view of themselves. She played us off against each other. I’m not sure why but others believe it was to drive us on to compete to be better. There is also that strand of a Catholic catechism that installs original sin in the psyche and leaves us feeling forever unworthy. I rejected Catholicism internally soon after leaving Primary School but feelings of unworthiness have remained with me all my life.

Bit of an emergency yesterday rather threw plans in to disarray. Phone call mid afternoon from Brother-in-Law up in Surrey to say that Pauline’s sister had been taken in to hospital with a suspected heart attack. It took just over an hour to drive up there on what was the most beautiful afternoon of delicious sunshine. It involves a spell on the M25 which seemed quite light luckily. They are both well in to their 80’s and quite frail. Pauline was the ‘mistake’ baby of the family and 14 years younger than her sister. Their daughter is currently in America chaperoning her son at a tennis academy so we had to step in to the breach.

We went round packing bags with clothes and toiletries, phone charger, etc. Off to St Peters Hospital in Chertsey. It felt strange to be back somewhere we lived for 5 years. I didn’t miss it. Hospitals are a nightmare at the moment and this one was worse than most. Spent more time in the carpark than the hospital. When we did get out, we drove back late at night under a pitch black sky with the most beautiful, huge full moon illuminating everything. The M25 has never looked more lovely. Shattered when we got home but had to be up early this morning for a Sainsbury’s delivery. Going for a walk down to the village Post Office to post back … more rejected clothes.

Wednesday, 28th April, 2021

I was looking for a photograph for Pauline’s friend yesterday when I came across this picture from 1974.

I messaged her last night and attached a copy of the photo. She says that she no longer has the duck. However, she does seem to have turned out to be a lovely girl.

It was eleven years ago that our confidence in the Greek economy was beginning to be shaken. The picture above shows our island branch of the National Bank of Greece (Εθνική Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος). We had spent a decade channelling over £200,000.00 through it for design and building work. On this day 11 years ago, we had over £10,000.00 in our account and there were rumours of financial instability in the country’s banking system. We thought there was a possibility of accounts being ‘locked’. We withdrew it immediately and stored it in cash. Fortunately, we had a few more years before we had to sell the house to protect our investment.

Following on from yesterday’s theme (sorry). Mum was born and lived in London. When war broke out, London children were evacuated to the countryside to avoid the Blitz. Mum was sent to a farm in Wales. I think she was in Builth Wells near Hay-on-Wye. As a 15 year old Townie, she learned to love it. She also fell in love with a lad in the family she was lodging with. After Dad died, she went back to visit him but realised he wasn’t the person she remembered.

However, she always loved Wales after her evacuation experience and persuaded Dad to take us on holiday there. We stayed at Tenby, Saundersfoot and Colwyn Bay. It is there, I fell in love with Carol. I was 15 and she was about 35. I was immediately and absolutely infatuated with her. I think she knew it and rather played along. After the two week holiday, we exchanged addresses and wrote to each other for 2 or 3 months. I’ve always fancied older women!

I just had to ‘dump’ Carol and move on when I was picked up and taken for a walk by this young lady at Scout-Guide camp. It’s all a learning curve, isn’t it?

Thursday, 29th April, 2021

Glorious morning. Going out for a long walk very early because I have to drive back up to Surrey later on to visit Pauline’s sister in hospital. There’s a chance that we may even be taking her back to her home after her procedure. It sounds daft but I’m quite looking forward to 2-3 hours driving because I’ve done so little of it in the past few months.

I’ve been working hard in the gym and walking each day for 4 full months now. I have only missed my targets 3 times in the past 12 weeks. I have also tightened up my food intake quite considerably and am now into my 4^th week without alcohol. I do feel a lot better. In 12 weeks, I have walked/jogged 660 miles or almost 55 miles per week. I am now resolved to increase my efforts. Got to get in shape in case Katy from Sky Technical calls!

At least we have some lovely walks around here. The Sussex Downs are famous for tourist walkers. We have this delicious bluebell wood within easy reach.

Of course, most people come for the sea and the beaches. We are a sunny county and walking by the sea can be quite delightful. This little chap appeared in the shallows the other day.

These things are nice distractions and help me to exercise but there is much in life that is so much more important to me. Really miss friends. Six years ago this morning, we were meeting Viv, a lovely girl who did Reprographics for us in our school and was paid peanuts for doing it. We were having coffee with her in the coffee shop in Oldham Library and then went on to meet Brian in Shaw followed by Margaret in Marsden. So many people in the North that I miss!

Friday, 30th April, 2021

The last day of April, 2021. Everything is running away. It is, I must admit, another lovely, sunny day. Up at 6.00 am for Sainsbury’s delivery and then out for an early walk. Going to do some gardening but, otherwise, it is a bit of an empty day today.

I must apologise to regular readers of the Blog who haven’t any connection with my Training College. I have been collecting and collating pictures of that time all those years ago from and for friends who have lost contact. I have spent the past few years communicating with old friends/acquaintances and collecting memories for myself so I will just store them here for future reminiscence. Over the next few days, I will post a number of photos which I will try to link with narrative but which will mainly be for future reference of aficionados.

I was taking English as my main subject but I was mainly surrounded by artists. My mother was an art teacher. I love art but I have no skill at making it. I enjoyed the work many fellow students produced. I was given a grainy, old brochure for the college with what looked like ancient photos of ex-students. When I focussed in on it, I realised that many of the illustrations were from my time. It is a shock to realise how old we are, how black & white our history is and that now is the only time left to address it.

For reference, I think I recognise one of the girls in the top left photo and I think it is Steve Gill in the top right. However, it is the central panel which features my old Digs-mate, John Ridley and, I think, Julie in the centre. Above is Judy Hall in the foreground, a mature student and the Potter, Victor Priem in the back, centre.

I did a bit of research on Victor Priem because he was a fascinating character. The first thing that came up was one of his 1970s pots for sale at auction.

I was shocked to find that he died at the ridiculously young age of 64 but soon found out what a hard start to life he had when I found this.

It was only then that I realised he had lived and worked just a few miles away from my current home. I even found a Times Obituary of another artist who Victor Priem had taught at school in Brighton.

Kevin Sellers was a significant member of my group and he continues to produce art work at his home in Cumbria.

Chris Tolley & his wife live in France, as I understand it although I haven’t had contact with him.

I lived with Nigel for all three years of my College life in Digs and in a ‘flat’. He was an extremely interesting lad who taught me a lot. I had never heard of Leonard Cohen in my life until I met Nigel. I was immediately attracted by his anarchy. What would my Mother think?

I had never drunk wine in my life but Nigel introduced me to red wine and I have never been able to shake it off since. Within weeks of arriving in Ripon, Nigel got me drunk for only the second and last time in my life and I found myself sitting on the white line at the centre of College Road at midnight singing the Beatles, Why don’t we do it in the road? What would my Mother think??

The last time I saw Nigel and the lovely Julie was at a party at their home in Rochester, Kent in 1974. How lives change. They split up. Nigel became a Buddhist Monk although he has since emerged back into the world as an artist. Julie did an MA in Art History at Leeds but never remarried. At this distance, it makes one’s heart ache!

Just one coda for today. The Head of Art at the College was the irascible Derek Bolton pictured here with John Lee, the Mens’ Tutor.

They both look so young. As a student, I remember them as being so much older. John Lee, who I didn’t find easy to relate to, caught me with a girl after hours in the student bar in the Summer of 1973 and gave me a real telling off until I reminded him that I was no longer a student there at which point he turned his ire on the girl. Such memories!

Saturday, 1st May, 2021

Happy first day of May, 2021 to all our readers. It is the most beautiful day down here this morning and all is well with the world. Hope you have a lovely month. 

I am going to start the morning in quite customary way by walking down to the Post Office in the village. I don’t need to tell you why but I do observe that most of the clothes order is being kept this time. Success was modelled happily yesterday and only two items repackaged for return.

When I arrived at college 52 years ago this October, it was a scrambled event. I had learned at the end of August that my A-Levels were not good enough to get me into Newcastle University and I was scrambling around to avoid having to get a job. Ripon, like many Training Colleges, had been instructed to take English students to fill serious gaps in the country’s Teaching Force. My mother was desperate to get rid of me and saw the advert. 

With about two weeks to go before term started, I went up for interview. I had to report to the Porters’ Lodge like some latter-day, minor public school. It was unlike any interview I had been to before. I was not the supplicant. They were desperate to attract men for the government’s funding-stream. They had heard of Burton Grammar School and were impressed. They had heard of Men and were impressed. What’s not to like? Could I cope with all those women? I had been to an all-boys Grammar School but I pretended to be a man-of-the- world who wouldn’t be phased by lots of girls. After all, I had 5 sisters. How difficult could it be? Little did I know!

The College was still in the first half of the 20th Century, still demure as befits a Ladies, Church of England College. This brochure page from 1970 is illustrative of the interior. Fresh cut flower arrangements were put in the Bishop Chase Common Room every morning. Decorum was the watchword although the young men throwing a ball about rather ruined it.

No men in rooms after 10.00 pm was still in place and there were stories of students’ doors having to be left open when ‘entertaining’ people. The buildings and the regulations, the culture and the staff were rather from a different era. They were definitely worried about the effect the new Men would have on their Ladies. Of course we were saintliness personified!

The Ladies College had begun in 1862, took its first male intake in 1969, merged with the Men’s College of St. John’s in York in 1974 and, finally, moved there completely in 2002. The building has since been turned into private apartments.

Sunday, 18th April, 2021

The beautiful days just keep coming. Yesterday we reached a pleasant 17C/63F. Looks like today’s walk will be just as nice.

I’m really quite enjoying pushing myself more in terms of exercise. Some inherit long life through their genes; some have to work for it.

I was the pioneer of the internet in my school. In 1994, I set up a dial-up internet service in the Resource Centre. In those days, it was very flaky, made a lot of noise as it connected and was totally text-based. I was very excited. Eventually, I designed and built a school-wide Intranet, set up on-line learning, introduced Classroom registration on Tablets with wireless connections across the campus, introduced Staff access to School computers from home so work could be seamless and strove to get as many classrooms as possible stocked with PCs/Laptops.

There was a lot of resistance through fear and unfamiliarity at first. To overcome that, I used to play a game to demonstrate how essential the internet would become in our lives. The game was to illustrate that the internet could provide any answer to any questions within a few minutes. I challenged people to test me on it and they would ask what they thought were really obscure questions. I rarely failed to provide the answer.

I have spent weeks trying to find 3 ex-College friends of Pauline’s from 1973. I’ve found their parents, their births, their marriages, their partners’ names but I’ve really struggled to find their current addresses. What you have to be is tenacious and never give up. Something always surfaces if you keep going. Having tried all the conventional routes, I had a brainwave. I had learnt the names of No.1 Christine’s children. I knew which town she was last known to live in. I reasoned that many kids like to stay within reach of their parents and I went to Linkedin to search.

Linkedin is a professional networking site and it allows job seekers to post their CVs and employers to post jobs. I put in a search for each child by their unmarried name and then narrowed them down to the town where the family had lived. I found three, professional men working for National companies in the town. I just took a risk and messaged them with a request to contact their mothers. A week went by with nothing but then, on Friday night, one emailed me asking for more information. Sometimes, you just have to take a risk to get someone to trust you. I do it all the time. What’s the worst that can happen?

Within minutes of sending more personal information to a total stranger, I got an email back saying that he was indeed No1 Christine’s son and that she was with him at his home. She would love to reconnect with Pauline. Emails between them quickly exchanged. She learnt that No.3 Denise lives just down the same street as Christine and No.2 Ros lives not far away. I had a feeling that, if I found one, I might see a domino effect. Even so, I’m very proud of myself to have provided Pauline with three old friends to reconnect with and sustain her.

Monday, 19th April, 2021

Delicious morning and we eventually reached 17C/63F as we sunbathed in the garden. Up at 6.30 am because we thought we had a Covid tester arriving at 8.15 am. My mobile was on silent and I didn’t hear her call come in until it flashed on my watch to say she couldn’t make it and would arrive mid-afternoon. We will be having our 11th Lateral Flow test and have now been recruited to the antibody research which involves a blood sample as well. It is just a finger prick blood test which I do once a week anyway for my INR self-test so I see no reason for not doing it if it contributes to the national database.

It’s amazing how coincidences occur. Yesterday I was writing about setting up a school-wide Intranet and I was searching through my cloud-based resources this morning when I came across this from almost 16 years ago. I know I’m sad but I really enjoyed designing this and inflicting it on all the staff. We were one of the first schools in the country to establish such an infrastructure.

It took a huge amount of work but, fortunately, I managed to pull in the support of excellent IT technicians and travelled round the country looking at other’s systems. I remember a long trip to Telford in Shropshire who really were pioneers and who inspired me.

Eventually, I met an interesting man who had started a company called Frog in Halifax designing Intranets for Business. He had much more skill than me. I got him over to my school to pitch to the team against the much inferior system that the Local Authority were trying to get us to adopt. We bought it at a cost of £56,000.00 and the LEA weren’t pleased but I was.

Tuesday, 20th April, 2021

Glorious morning to be up at 6.00 am. Blue sky and full sun and mild. Sainsburys are calling at 8.00 am and then we are walking down to the village Post Office to return yet more mail-order clothes. Women seem to have an infinite capacity for new clothes which I can’t quite understand. Never mind, it is not my job to understand this.

There are many things I don’t understand. One of them is the Teacher Training students from my past remaining obsessed with the College and the town of Ripon. They constantly return there to meet up and try to recreate the atmosphere that they remember.

So many of them stayed in the area and have never left. The College building has been redeveloped and is now apartments that some past students actually live in. I loved my time there but I don’t want to recreate it. I have moved on. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t parts of it I don’t cherish and want to retain but I give you just one example that goes straight over my head.

At one of their reunions – and I haven’t been to any – the idea was floated that it would be a good idea to recreate the College ties with the College badge which then expanded in to Scarves and eventually added bow ties to be worn on ceremonial occasions. I was contacted and asked if I would like to join in. I declined. I am very happy for them if that’s what they want to do but I have moved on and don’t need any of that. I did a BA Eng. Degree and had the certificate sent to me in the post because ceremony is not my thing. I love intimacy not group.

When the foundations of our Greek home were being dug out in the 4 acre field that we had bought, investigations had to be made to ensure that we were not building on top of ancient remains or Acropolis (Ακρόπολη). In order to prove that, holes had to be dug out to expose the substrata. Having spent so much money on the field, we were nervous of what would be found until it was explained to us by our Building Manager that, if Acropolis were found, the hole would be quickly filled in and new ones dug which would reveal nothing. Then inspectors would be called in to pass the building work.

Through the wood fringing our Development, another 40 new houses are going to be built. The site of a former, commercial Herb Nursery has been cleared but building can’t start because archaeologists are inspecting for English Acropolis. Holes are being dug everywhere and barrow loads of soil carried off for analysis. A nervous time for the Developers.

On our walk this morning, I stopped at the Estate Agent’s window to look at properties on the market. Admittedly, the market is very buoyant at the moment with properties selling almost instantly. It was pleasing to see 4 Bedroomed Detached Houses starting to go up at £800,000.00 which is gratifying.

Wednesday, 21st April, 2021

The sun is shining strongly again this morning and we have reached the customary 17C/63F already. Been shorts & tee shirt weather all week. No clothes to return today so we will have to invent a reason for our walk. I might even clean the car. Actually went shopping yesterday – well to the Garden Centre. Really enjoyed it. Spent £200.00/€232.00 in about 20 mins. What fun!

After everything I wrote yesterday, I received this picture that immediately took me back.

I wrote a few weeks ago about my first day at Ripon College. This was the house I was in ‘Digs’ in with the Boyd family. Geoff Boyd was in the RAF. I’ve forgotten his wife’s name now but she was a brusque, efficient little Scots woman. (Actually, I’ve just consulted John Ridley who said we never knew her name.)  Geoff was gently spoken, humorous and ironic. John tells me they are both dead now. They had two, nice kids at Ripon Grammar School. I was sharing the upper floor with Nigel and John. You couldn’t have found two more diametrically opposed characters but it seemed to work. Two of us got girlfriends early on and didn’t spend a lot of time at home because we weren’t allowed girls there.

Actually, I spent quite a lot of time here. I even remember that it took exactly 4 minutes to run from the Cottages to the Student Bar at 10.50 pm although I think it might take me a minute longer now.

Mr & Mrs Boyd were really nice, caring people who acted like parents to us – feeding us enormous meals, doing our washing, keeping the house clean and tidy, etc.. For students, we were nice people as well and there was no conflict that I can recall. Nigel and I moved out after two years to get a flat with others. I didn’t see Mr & Mrs Boyd again for many years then, one day, I was doing some work in central London. I had to take the underground. There were huge queues for the ticket machines. I had to push through them to get to my train. As I did so, there were Mr & Mrs Boyd queuing for tickets. What are the chances of that? It must have been 25 years since I’d seen them. I was hurrying for a train and they were keen to get their tickets. Hello/Goodbye was all we managed but you don’t forget those coincidences.

I can assure you that I have had no affinity with Brothels. However, I have almost lived in two. I’ve already written about my Oldham experience but it all really started in Ripon. Four of us – Kevin, Chris, Nigel and I all thought it was time we grew up and branched out for ourselves. We took a ‘Flat’ above a television rental shop and (as it turned out) below a working brothel run by a huge Fijian guy who none of us was going to argue with. It was a dreadful flat and I would probably have been better staying in Digs but it taught me something about the world which I needed to learn. It doesn’t stop me getting hurt but at least I can anticipate it better.

Thursday, 22nd April, 2021

Another wonderful day. Life can be good, can’t it? The sun is beaming down, the sky is blue, the birds are singing their hearts out for our morning walk. An old, colleague friend of mine in Shaw contacted me this morning to tell me that quite a few members of his family had contracted Covid and been very ill although not hospitalised. Throughout this pandemic, I only know of one person in my area to get ill at all.

An old College friend tells me that the cottages I featured yesterday are now rentable holiday homes. The College itself is fully redeveloped as apartment homes. If only the owners knew the past events of their present properties!

The Art Block, where I spent so many happy evenings playing the piano, is still in deserted and dilapidated state. It must be ripe for redevelopment soon.

Certainly Ripon is a very marketable place for property. An Estate Agent is advertising a property a few doors down from where my flat was and it is on at £850,000.00. I’m not sure I’d be prepared to pay that.

I’ve been back to Ripon once for a few minutes since the Summer of 1973. I didn’t find it an easy experience.

Pauline is already getting on well re-establishing old, College relationships. The girls who I have managed to trace bought this mixing bowl for her as she left. Just typical of her, she’s kept it throughout these 48 years and is still using it today.

Friday, 23rd April, 2021

Woke up in the middle of the night with these words beating in my head:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

and woke up this morning with a strange veil of sadness. It is strange because the day is so beautiful, with cloudless, blue sky and strong sunshine. I have got positive things to do like rake and mow the lawns, plant out some new purchases and pot up culinary herbs.

I apologise for what follows but, if you didn’t go to my College around the time I was there, these photos will mean absolutely nothing to you. To be honest, even if you did, they will probably mean little. I am using this as a point of reference for when Dementia destroys my memory and events begin to fade away….

The above photo was for a newspaper article which announced the first cohort of men at the college.

I was young and more naïve than most. Nigel on my shoulders here was 3 years older than me. Kevin was 2 years older. At that age, 2-3 years makes a huge difference in maturity as I found out.

The more I look at these photos, the more foolish I realise I was in those days. Hiding in a corner; hiding my face with a waste bin. What was I thinking?

The above photo features Bob Stephens who died of cancer shortly after we left college. He was a quietly spoken, amusing lad who lived on cigarettes and Opal Fruits. I only found out that Derek had lived and worked near me most of his life after he had retired and moved away.

I was a Rugby Union player and the world’s worst footballer but I felt I had to play for the college team initially. You can only tell this is me by the hair.

Of course we had to leave and make our way in the real world. I have already written of my angst in dealing with that. Before we did, there was the final photo. I didn’t attend the whole College photo. I assume there was one but I don’t remember it. However, as one of the first male intake, I did go for the photo with our Tutor, Mr. Lee.

This final photo was taken virtually as close as I got to the chapel in all 3 years. My hair seems to be a bit more under control by this stage. The photo features:

BR L-R: Nigel, John, Bill, Jimmy, Me, Kevin, Dave
MR L-R: John(Tash), Bill, Bob, Mature?, Mature?
FR L-R: Derek, Chris, Kevin, Steve, Mr Lee, Derek, John, Peter

Missing from the original 20 men (Matures didn’t count) were Bob (who I think was already ill), Andy and Charles (who I think had been kicked out).

Decline & Fall. Definitely starting to put on weight. This photo was taken in some Ripon pub with a few 3rd year students from the Year after me. I was there for a week working with David McAndrew delivering an English Language course to Dutch students. Quite enjoyed it and we repeated it the next year as well but, by then, the place had started to irk me. That’s why I’ve hardly ever been back.

Saturday, 24th April, 2021

It is fascinating how it is possible to run interior and exterior lives in parallel. Yesterday was the most beautiful day. Clear blue sky and very intense sunshine all day. A long walk followed by gardening in a temperature of 20C/68F burnt my face. Even so, the promise of Summer to come certainly is heartening. And yet I dreamt a really lurid, disturbing dream which felt like an alternative reality burning into me. I think it came from something my wife had said to me yesterday.

Pauline is already on her 5^th detailed email with her newly re-found friend. They are quickly catching up on lives missed. Her friend’s husband died of cancer in his early 60s but she is sustained by her children, their wives and grandchildren. Out of my 6 siblings, 4 have families with grandchildren. Yesterday, Little Liz, who still does a very busy job as Director of Adult Social Care for Richmond & Wandsworth Councils, posted a very happy picture of herself cradling her latest grandchild.

My slightly younger brother, Bob, in Maidenhead, is retired and styles himself as Grumpy Bob although he doesn’t appear very grumpy and has a lovely family of which he is very proud. He certainly looks very happy even if he has lost more hair than his older brother.

Even my god daughter, Julia, posted a lovely picture of her brood yesterday which exudes happiness.

Growing up in a large family, I always thought I would be a father. However, fate conspired against me. My wife said from the outset that she didn’t want children and I respected that. Actually, with so many children running through our hands as teachers, it was possible to sublimate that desire into them. Over the years, Pauline & I ‘adopted’ kids from school temporarily. Individuals or pairs of young people came to our house to help with IT work, help in the gardens, be taken out for the day, etc. I was an inveterate matchmaker (which is ironic in itself but I thought was a Dad’s job) and one pairing left school, lived together and had a child before parting. Felt a bit guilty about that!

In some respects, as time went on, I recognised the convenience of being able to pick children up and return them without the sense of responsibility. So much of what we have been able to do in our lives would have been compromised by the additional responsibility of family. For so long, we have never had to worry about money, buying what we wanted when we wanted it. I really enjoyed wasting money changing the car every year just for the smell of a new one. It was great to feel we could just fly abroad on a whim without having to worry about anyone else. We would never have built the Greek house if we’d been concerned about depriving our children of time and inheritance.

However, there have been specific times across our marriage when Pauline has panicked, as I cooed over a baby, that she has deprived me of that experience. Of course, I have reassured her with the arguments set out above but she was never fully convinced. Now, at this great age, her concern is that she should have grandchildren to look after her in her old age when I am gone. Yesterday day she said it again as I showed her Liz’s photo. I’m afraid it’s too late.

Sunday, 11th April, 2021

Beautiful day here this morning although I have woken feeling there is a hole in the world. It wasn’t a cold night and there is no sign of frost which my budding figs will be grateful for but my sister in Yorkshire posted this on Twitter early this morning. She takes shots of the changing year from her kitchen window which is both economical but also illustrative of the times.

I also had some photos from an old, College friend who lives in Rochdale. People say this is remarkable for April but I don’t really think so. We once set off for Manchester Airport in April with little time to catch a flight. As we drove from our home in Huddersfield, the skies opened and a blizzard hit the M62. Cars were literally going off in all directions, colliding with each other, sliding up the embankments, stopping dead out of fear. We struggled through and got there but it sticks in the memory.

There are things I miss about the North of England. I was there for almost 40 years after all but I do not miss the weather.

Monday, 12th April, 2021

The morning started out cold and wet but is gradually brightening up. Blue sky and sunshine has arrived but, even so, I’m going to do a big session in the gym today instead of going out. Before that, I am listening to a political podcast and starting on my Blog.

We are often told to stop looking back. Live in the present and look to the future. I try to get the most out of my everyday while maintaining great hope for the future but I do it from the roots of my past. I have been reviewing strands from my history recently and trying to tease out the elements which have been important and anyone following this Blog will know that my connection with my past is as much emotional as intellectual

I was born in the small, East Midlands village of Repton which will always be known for its famous public school with Alumni like Basil Rathbone, Roald Dahl and Jeremy Clarkson. However, it is also known for the Sanders family who were there and prominent for almost 150 years. They arrived there from Leicestershire in the 1850s when they bought the village water mill. By the 1880s, they still owned the mill but my Great Grandfather, Edwin Sanders, went in to partnership with Joseph Dolman and was branching out as a builder.

Edwin was doing well and became elected to the Rural District Council and made a Governor of Burton Board of Guardians. By 1920, Edwin bought Dolman out and partnered with his son, my Grandfather. It cost him almost £2000.00 which was the equivalent to an average man’s annual wages for 10 years. Edwin died 7 years later and Grandad carried on alone until 1938 when he reset the business with my father who had just passed his Building Exams.

I was supposed to be taking on the burden but Dad died in 1965 when I was just 14. Time would not wait and the business was sold. Effectively, it ended our prominence in Repton and the family gradually dissipated around the country. I would not go back to that world for anything but I recognise how fortunate I was to have that stability in my upbringing.

Tuesday, 13th April, 2021

Beautiful morning although a little cool at 6.00 am under a clear, blue sky. Going out for an early walk in the sunshine. West Sussex is reputed to be the sunniest County in UK although I suspect it is rivalled by Cornwall. Anyway, all this walking outside is turning me into a pickled walnut so must put some cream on. Soon be time to return to the local beach.

There is a family Messenger thread going at the moment and we are all now retired or coming to retirement so family research is popular. Members of the family are keen to reacquaint themselves with their roots and these things – people & dates – are so easily lost in the mists of time. I use all sorts of tools and sources to find people and it can be difficult and time consuming but, being a research geek, I love it. There is something really satisfying when you ‘crack’ a difficult case. I am still struggling with Pauline’s former College friends although mine are a little easier.

This morning the thread concerned one of my Dad’s sisters, Kath, who married and lived up the High Street in our village. I use:

Ancestry.co.uk,
192.com People Finder,
FinderMonkey,
Public Record Search
Trace Genie – Electoral Rolls

You can still get seriously frustrated which is why success is so sweet. Although I can picture both Auntie Kath and Uncle Arthur clearly. They were both lovely, kind people but who remembers their dates? This morning I was able to supply them for the Family thread quite quickly.

I remember, they had Dalmatian dogs in the time of 101 Dalmatians being popular. Arthur was Head of Science at a local school and a very interesting, gentle man. They had lived all their married life in Repton village. He retired and they moved to their dream retirement in picturesque Branscombe in Devon.

As so often happens and, particularly with teachers, Arthur didn’t last long and Kath came back to the security of her home village. A tragic addendum to that story is that their eldest son and my cousin, Peter, who was not long married, unexpectedly died of a heart attack in his sleep 2 years after her return at the age of 36. It must have been an almost unbearable time for her.

Wednesday, 14th April, 2021

I shot out of bed at 3.30 am in absolute agony. My left leg had cramped so tightly I could barely walk. It’s all this exercise. I must be over doing it. It took me ages of agony to get over it and then couldn’t get back to sleep until the radio came on at 6.00 am. Lovely, lovely start to the day though. Blue sky and sunshine and warmer.

It is just under 8 weeks since our first vaccination and we know people here have been having to wait almost the full 12 weeks for their second. That would have taken us to the middle of May. Yesterday afternoon we received a phone call asking us if we could go down this morning for our second jab. Who would refuse that? So that is the focus for the morning. Must try to get my exercise in first. Got to do some serious weight training. We have a couple of sets of dumbbells, a step bench and mat in our Home Gym but may need to take it to another level. Goodness knows where I will get cramp next!

Lovely girls at the Medical Centre. Turned out one of them recognised us because she lived not far away. The one who did the injection was so small she only came up to my shoulder when I was sitting down. Most of these people were just volunteering. Nice experience altogether.

Thursday, 15th April, 2021

Mid-April already. We should be away. My Memory Store threw this up this morning from 12 years ago. We had been retired for just 2 weeks and had arrived at our house in Greece. The Spring rains there had left the island very green although another month would turn it all brown.

It is a beautiful day here and we are going out to enjoy the warm sunshine but there is something about a change of scene that raises the spirits. Still two vaccines will soon provide us with travel passports and freedom.

The other photo that came out of the Memory Store was for 5 years ago today. We had been in our Sussex house for about 3 weeks and had been dining off garden furniture because our ordered stuff hadn’t arrived. It was such a relief when it did that I photographed it even before we’d had the blinds put up at the windows.

I’d found the The Dining Table and chairs on-line while we were staying in a Tenerife hotel. Ironically, it turned out to be from Housing Units in Oldham which we never visited when we lived in the North. I was very pleased with it when we finally took delivery. It’s hard to believe that it is 5 years ago. What will the next 5 years bring?

Did a really delightful walk down to the village – about an hour’s round trip. The sun was warm and the bird song incredible. There has been an explosion of robins in our wooded area. I love robins. They are so beautiful but feisty. The fat, brown rabbit seems totally oblivious to us nowadays. The walk was to the Post Office to return another £250.00/€290.00 worth of ordered clothes. It’s a great game.

Weird footnote: Even though I don’t eat pastry, I’ve been fantasising about big, juicy Cornish Pasties. Where did that come from? Is it me or is life strange?

Friday, 16th April, 2021

Glorious morning. Clear blue sky and strong sun from the moment I leapt out of bed at 6.00 am. Must be happy! Actually, we are having a Sainsbury’s delivery at 7.00 am. My increased exercise regime has increased my energy levels which is good. Another walk down to the Post Office this morning. More clothes going back. Never anything for me. I don’t really wear anything worth calling clothes. Anyway, more money coming back into the account.

The BBC R4 Today programme tried to deflate me with an article about China’s approach to global emissions. I know, it’s early for such topics but it helps me engage my brain immediately. China are arguing, and with some justification, that developed countries like the US and UK have been through their industrialisation and, therefore, global pollution process long ago. China is going through that process now and post-industrial nations like us should be considered more responsible for ‘greening’ our economies than them. What shocked me was their target for becoming carbon-neutral by 2060. I will be 109!!

My Ancestry app runs an algorithm which searches for new connections for me and regularly emails me with suggestions. This morning, it found a 1939 Census return which featured our house in Repton. It was No. 81 High Street but Mum & Dad knew it as Ingle Nook because it had an ingle nook fireplace of which they were proud. In the early 1960s, it was replaced with a coke burning stove and central heating and the name seemed to fall into obeyance but it was nice to see the written confirmation.

At the time, he was only 24 years old and single. I think he was quite handsome. Unfortunately, I think I inherited my Mother’s genes. I see her in the mirror every time I look. In 1939, Dad had passed his Building Diploma and was just about to risk his life fighting in WW2. As a builder, he was drafted into the Royal Engineers and found himself in the furnace that was Palestine. He rose through the ranks to Captain and, ultimately Major Sanders He never made anything of it in peacetime but my Mother loved to talk about it.

Although I was 14 when he died, I never really got to know him. He tried but he wasn’t very tactile or communicative. When Bob & I went to speak to him in his hospital bed where he was being treated for angina at the age of 49, none of us had anything to say. I remember it being very uncomfortable and it was the last time I saw him.

Saturday, 17th April, 2021

Glorious morning. We were out early to Sainsburys because they contacted Pauline about a product recall. She has been eating their Medjool Dates like there is no tomorrow for a few weeks. They give an instant energy boost if its needed. Too many calories for me so I haven’t touched them. Yesterday, Sainsburys contacted her about the potentially infectious contamination of Hepatitis-A and provided batch numbers. Of course they were exactly the batch she has been eating for some time and she still had two boxes left. She had an immediate discussion with the Surgery about a possible blood test and we took the rest back this morning. I went for a walk in the sunshine while she was shopping.

We went on to the beach for a few minutes just to breathe the sea air. It really looked lovely and made me feel good. There were very few people out walking which makes it even more enjoyable.

I’m getting a bit worried that my neighbours are going to have me ‘Sectioned’ soon because of my behaviour in the Gym. My absolutely favourite television programme to watch at the moment is Would I Lie to You. Nothing I have watched in years has made me just scream with laughter. Particularly, I like Bob Mortimer’s tales. I am a very naïve, trusting person so it’s good training for me but my neighbours must really think I’m losing it as hysterics filter out of the garage.

They won’t hear it today because I’m going out for my second walk of the day to soak up the sun rather than the gym.