Sanders Blog

Sunday, 20th December, 2020

Hands up those who have managed 12 full years of a diary. That’s 625 weeks. That’s 4368 days’ records. No, I thought not. Actually, mine was a bit sketchy in the first few weeks but retirement has definitely given it full rein. As a digital autobiography, it has proved incredibly useful. I will be 70 in this Blog Year and seriously hope to post a Year 26 Blog notice. I mean, 83 is nothing nowadays, is it?

It is amazing what can happen in a life over 12 years. I draw strength from what has gone before and really look forward to what is to come. I will let you know at the age of 82 whether it has been as good or, perhaps, even better.

Monday, 21st December, 2020

The shortest day of the year and it has opened dark and damp. We were up at 5.45 am on a day when we will be doing quite a lot of driving. The enveloping chaos on the EU/UK borders – something which prefigures the outlook for post-Brexit Britain – will lead to panic buying in the last days up to Christmas.

Because of the Covid danger, Pauline and I go shopping at unearthly hours to avoid others. This morning was Sainsbury’s at 6.00 am followed by Asda at 7.00 am. Back home for coffee. Pauline is making Rabbit & Pork Pâté with Lemon & Thyme for our Christmas feast. The rabbit is French which makes all the difference.

Pauline has so much culinary skill and even more enthusiasm that she produces so many lovely dishes. We virtually never buy pre-prepared food of any sort. For weeks, Pauline has been making Christmas cakes, Christmas puddings, Vanilla Ice cream, etc..

She has been researching our fish medley Starter which will be King Scallops, Monkfish and Langoustines with a Gratin crust. I am salivating as I type. Main course will be Citrus Glazed Goose with Chestnut and Pork Meat Stuffing accompanied by honey-glazed roast parsnips and carrots. Pudding will be Homemade Christmas Pudding with Homemade Vanilla Ice cream.

The biggest challenge will be not eating rather than binging on this lovely stuff. We’ve already put weight on through eating too much and certainly drinking too much. As ever, we are going to punish ourselves in the New Year. We are in Tier 2 but it doesn’t look as if we will be travelling abroad until at least June. This gives us 5 months of purgatory to pay for the future enjoyment. We can make a big difference in 5 months. Anyway, we are setting off for Tier 4 Surrey this lunchtime to deliver Christmas cakes, Christmas puddings and one or two other cooked treats to Pauline’s family. We won’t be having any contact with anybody en route and, when we get there, we will drop the presents at the door and stand well back before beating a hasty retreat to sunny Sussex.

Our little village of Angmering popped up on Countryfile last night. It looked a nice place to live. I am not a big lover of villages but it is possible to live here and still remain anonymous.

The village is expanding rapidly as town dwellers desperately want to escape to a safer environment. Locals cannot afford to remain but have to move out to buy a house. We are comfortable in a village which has fantastic connections to all the things we want to do. My only regret is that it takes over an hour to drive to the tunnel but, currently, that is an asset!

Tuesday, 22nd December, 2020

What a depressing day. Dark, wet, cool. I took a long phone call from my old friend and mentor while I was a youth in my home village of Repton, Derbyshire. It was the first year anniversary of his wife, Sue’s death. They were married and inseparable for 50 years. They lived an isolated life bound tightly together on a remote, Welsh farm.

Dave indulged his passion for the Great Outdoors and for manual labour while Sue enjoyed horse riding and looking after 16 donkeys, a clutch of geese and some hens. I can only imagine how the loss of one’s partner like that feels and I don’t want to experience it although it will come to us all one day.

For all his resilience, Dave is struggling to come to terms with his new situation. The horse and donkeys have gone to new homes, the geese are still there but the hens have stopped laying. Dave is busy all day maintaining the property but Covid has stopped his sons helping out. I resolve to phone him more often. I know how much the younger me owed him. I have also emailed my friend in Massachusetts who also knows and respects Dave so that he can lend a hand in cheering him up as well.

On Saturday morning, we applied for new passports. Yesterday, we received texts to say our requests had been noted and today, less than 3 days since our application, we received texts and emails informing us that our new and old passports were in the mail. Have you ever known a government service like that? In a pandemic? Unbelievable! The only thing we can think is that the current situation is putting others off applying and the service is looking for customers.

The UK (shambles) government are so committed to increasing home production of fruit and vegetables that they have annexed Spanish farms to grow them on. Just open up the carrots to see.

Wednesday, 23rd December, 2020

Whilst everything else decays and falls off, my eyesight has steadily improved over the years. I rarely wear my distance glasses which were always on my face in my youth. Sometimes I find I’ve driven miles before realising that I hadn’t been wearing them. With age, people require longer arms or adopt glasses to read small print. I do wear reading glasses but, increasingly, can usually manage without them when pushed.

Well, I’m likely to find out soon. I spend most of my time with my half moons balanced on the end of my nose. I have three pairs – one chipped, one mangled and one which snapped this morning. With possible shut down of shops in the New Year, I may have to resort to on-line purchase. The problem is my prescription is almost out of date and I don’t understand it. I’m thinking of driving to Barnard castle to calibrate it.

We were at Sainsburys for 6.00 am to buy plastic, freezer storage boxes for Pauline’s latest project – Don’t ask! She is organising the copious amounts of herbs we have harvested this year. We had to be at Waitrose for 9.00 am to collect the goose. When we arrived, the queue snaked all round the outside of the building. Pauline walked straight to the front and was waved through because she was only picking up an order by appointment. The others were looking to browse/shop and numbers in store were being strictly controlled.

Home for coffee and the clouds parted; the sun came out; the temperature rose to 14C/57F and the world looked better. We are actually going out for a walk this afternoon. Haven’t done that for a few days now.

Thursday, 24th December, 2020

Gorgeous day! We pottered around until mid morning. Pauline prepared the goose for tomorrow and I did my customary, anal-retentive activity of going through the Christmas Cards, ticking off those who had reciprocated and putting red marks against those that haven’t. Actually, very few have failed to contact us this year apart from my eldest sister, Ruth, who has obviously written me off. Quite surprised, really. Haven’t heard from her at all. I’ve even had a lovely card from my fellow reclusive brother, Mike so something’s gone wrong in Bolton. Is Tier 57 not allowed to write to people?

It seemed a shame to miss the sunshine so we went for a walk on the beach. There were a few others out there doing exactly the same.

I began my Blog on Christmas Day, 2008. Tomorrow, will see the true beginning of Year 13. It has reached the stage when my, obsessive compulsive character will not allow me to stop. I cannot end a day without recording it. As another year begins and many of us resolve to keep a diary, I thought I would draw your attention to some of the great exponents. Of course, they can’t compare with me but, as also-rans, they are worthy of note.

1. The most famous of all English diarists, Samuel Pepys, began his diary in 1660, just before he secured a position as Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board, and brought it to an end nine years later because he believed (mistakenly) that his eyesight was deteriorating so badly that he risked blindness.
   
2. Virginia Woolf kept a diary that ran from 1915 to her death in 1941 which is eminently emulatable although she ended her life by drowning herself in the River Ouse at which I draw the line.
   
3. Tony Benn kept a diary and refused to go to bed without recording the events of his day. Latterly, it was an audio diary that he recorded on tape. I relate to him completely although I didn’t quite have the interesting daily events to record.

Friday, 25th December, 2020

The Blog wishes you all a happy day as it starts its 13th year. Let’s hope we all see 14. I woke up thinking, I don’t have to drive up to Surrey today. Because we are not going up to Surrey, we had a leisurely breakfast and then I did my Boxing Day routine of ‘Bringing the Christmas Address List up to date’ and printing out the address labels for 2021 so that Pauline’s alright if I die. I’m sure most of you do exactly the same thing. I’ve even left Ruth’s address on there in spite of the fact that she hasn’t contacted me. I live in hope.

We are free for the day. By 10.00 am, we were nipping down to the Marina. Actually, there were plenty of people about. We walked down to the Jetty in the sea and were surprised to see a boat returning from a night’s fishing.

Got Pauline to pose for me on the Jetty but it was so cold in the cutting sea breeze that we couldn’t stay out long.

We drove home for coffee followed by a bottle of champagne and pottering through the day. Pauline was cooking Forcemeat stuffing and Bread Sauce. This was a tradition in the Sanders household. We loved bread sauce with Turkey and game. An onion stuck with cloves is simmered in milk and, when the flavours have been absorbed, white bread crumbs are folded in. Pauline adds butter and double cream which makes the whole thing wonderful. It is magical and evocative for me. I haven’t eaten it for the past 40 years because our hosts aren’t keen on it. This year, oh, this year! We are indulging ourselves.

Saturday, 26th December, 2020

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!!!!

Ruth has sent me an E-Card. I always knew she would. She’s lovely really. I don’t care what the rest of the family say about her. Funnily enough, it arrived just as I was sending a picture of her Penthouse Apartment to my friend in Massachusetts. I love these weird connections. I start a conversation on Facebook or Twitter and, suddenly, two, totally unconnected people from my past who have never met and never will take over that conversation and develop an on-line relationship which I can stand back and watch.

Never has this been more noticeable than the past few years as the Class/Education/North-South divide has been exposed in this crazy, Brexit debate. I’ve had University friends debating with past work colleagues and family members. Recently, a girl I haven’t seen for fifty years was debating with a cousin who lives in France. They didn’t need me at all. I love being the observer.

When it comes to food, I’d love to be the observer but I find it so difficult not to be a participant. We spend all our days eating fish and salad and, suddenly, thrown into a rich meal of roast goose, stuffing, bread sauce, roasted root vegetables feels all too much. Our bodies aren’t acclimatised. Our Christmas meal was wonderful and we both enjoyed it but the autopsy found that we both felt it was all unnecessary. The Goose was lovely but not spectacular. An £80.00/€90.00 5kg bird actually only does 4 generous portions and the carcass does not produce a pleasant stock. It was pleasing to change from Turkey but next year, we will spend that money on a wonderful fish – probably Turbot or John Dory which we don’t usually splash out on.

The fish medley gratin was fabulous and the Christmas pudding with homemade ice-cream was gorgeous but it was all too rich. Our stomachs can’t cope with cheese and cream as they used to. Maybe next year will be a minimalist Christmas.

You would be hard pushed to say that this photograph above was taken 11 years ago until you look at the one below taken on the same day in 2009.

Who is that one in the red hat? I want him on my side! I suspect Ruth would happily go back to 2009 although I’m not sure I would.

Sunday, 13th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 9 (again)

A depressingly grey, breezy and cool morning not improved by the smirking, Tory faces populating our television studios telling us not to be worried about a No Deal Brexit with one breath while telling us to prepare for hardship to come in the next. The trouble is, the barmy, British Brexiteers want to believe the former and close their eyes to the latter. A hard rain’s gonna fall!

On such a depressing day, I am choosing to return to the archives in search of better memories. Around this time 11 years ago, we were retired and looking to move South. We had set off for Surrey to look at what we considered a ‘posh’ and expensive apartment which would be a good Lock-Up-&-Go for the 6 months we were not in Greece. They were just finished being built and there was an apartment left but our house in Yorkshire took too long to sell and we lost the Surrey one.

Fortunately, after we had sold our house in the North, we found a duplex apartment built on the site of a former Convent. Although it was perfectly adequate for our temporary needs, we couldn’t have understood its real value. The property we lost has risen and fallen in value over the past 11 years and is now on sale at barely 15% above the price at which we were prepared to buy. The property we did buy and owned for a little over 4 years, almost doubled in value when we sold. Since then, other owners have really struggled to sell and have accepted prices nearer to the one we originally paid. It is not often that fate works for one but, on this occasion, it did massively.

We are imagining the next few months. We will be successfully vaccinated by … say March. We will need a month for that to take effect. By April, we can drive abroad and stay in a hotel. The first place we will go is the hotel in Coquelles which immediately refunded our booking as the pandemic struck.

We don’t forget good, honest service and will go out of our way to reward it. We will use this hotel where we book a suite as a base from which to visit friends and places in Nord Pas de Calais. My Grammar School friend, John Whetton in Arras will be on the list.

The phone rang at 6.30 this evening. It was a lady called Audrey wanting to speak to John. Pauline answered but quickly realised it wasn’t me she wanted. It was a wrong number. She engaged the lady in conversation and found out she was 94 years old. Pauline asked her what number she really wanted and she read back our number exactly from her phone book. Where are you? Pauline asked and, instead of replying generally, Audrey gave out her precise address which is about 10 mins drive from us. Pauline told her, We are in Angmering. but said it wasn’t safe to give out her address to total strangers. She said, You’re right I suppose but you could come round for a chat if you like. Just phone to make sure I’m in. I’m very active you know. We are going to take a Christmas card round for her tomorrow and we will call in as soon as it’s safe.

Monday, 14th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 10 (again)

Actually, I freely admit to breaking Quarantine rules this morning. I drove Pauline to Waitrose where she bought a little Stollen cake and took it round with a Christmas card to our new, best friend, Audrey who phoned by mistake yesterday. It turns out that she has a lovely, big, seaside bungalow in a gated development. She told Pauline yesterday on the phone that she was becoming forgetful and, true to her word, this morning she couldn’t really remember speaking to Pauline yesterday afternoon at all. However, she was pleased and grateful to receive a gift and card. She invited Pauline in but she declined because of Covid which made the old lady laugh and we left.

If you are my age, you will remember these things. The one on the right is my Corona Typewriter. I have no idea how much it cost in 1975 but it wasn’t significant. If you wanted to buy one now, it would cost you £250.00/€276.00 but I don’t think you could get an ink ribbon for it. In 1975, I was doing a much-belated Degree course and this typewriter was my essential tool. I was also living in a dive of a flat in a (very recently) former brothel with a coal fire to heat it. I was teaching by day and studying by night. I was also, as ever, dieting!

This morning, I received a letter which I wrote in the hovel of a flat in 1977. Watching the episode of The Crown last night which featured Heath’s 3-Day Week and National Power Cuts, I was immediately transported back to that flat and listening in the darkness to Chopin Nocturnes on a battery driven Cassette Player by the glow of the fire. We really knew how to live in those days.

The rest of this letter, which I haven’t included, went on to talk about my study of the poetry of W.H.Auden. I was doing my final year study for my B.A. in Twentieth Century Poetry from Thomas Hardy, Auden, Eliot, Pound and Rainer Maria Rilke through W.B.Yeats and Dylan Thomas to Larkin and Hughes. If I’d wanted to plan my own course, this would have been it.

As my wife said to me this morning when she read the letter from my 26 year old self, You’re still weird now. If I’d known you were that weird then, I would have thought twice. So, thanks to Chris & Kev. I’d hoped to bury that!

Tuesday, 15th December, 2020

Quarantine Over (again)

We went out early to Sainsburys so Pauline could source ingredients for a Pickle that se is making. I went on my run for the first time in a while and it felt good.

After coffee at home, we decided to use our new, won freedom by nipping down to the beach for a walk. The tide was crashing right up the beach and on to the esplanade where people were walking.

There is something special about being able to just nip out to the beach without effort and to walk with the sight and sound of crashing waves and foaming water at our side. We both returned home feeling enlivened by the outing.

Wednesday, 16th December, 2020

Lovely morning although a little breezy. Sunny and bright. I’m going out for a PSA blood test. Pauline is receiving a ‘snagger’ to fit a cowl over an air vent which is noisy in the loft during strong winds.

We have now each had 6 negative Covid-19 tests and been paid £350.00/€390.00 for the privilege. We will have another 10 tests each over the next 10 months which will be reassuring and profitable. We each received our £100.00/€111.00 this morning which is better than a poke in the eye but could, possibly, more usefully directed if the cost of that process wasn’t prohibitive.

While I was out at the surgery – the 2nd surgery because the main one was solely occupied in providing Covid-19 inoculations. They will do 1000 jabs in 3 days this week. – Pauline was filling in idle time completing 3 Christmas cakes and completing production of her homemade pickle. I don’t like her to get bored without me. By the way, the cake decorations are 53 years old. Pauline bought them as a 16 yr old school girl doing Home Economics. We both like that sort of circularity.

Thursday, 17th December, 2020

Gorgeously sunny and reasonably mild morning. Actually, there was a cloud burst of torrential rain around 4.30 am and I got up half an hour later because I couldn’t get back to sleep. I couldn’t face the continual scenes of Worklife-Past which suddenly began to play across my mind. I was back in school, walking the interminable corridors I inhabited for so many years. When I made a cup of tea at 5.00 am, the sky was light and the sun was coming up. It seemed a bit early. Ten years ago today, we were in Yorkshire and coping with heavy snow. At least life is easier here. It’s the second half of December and I’m cutting the lawns this afternoon.

Tesco shopping for Pauline. Walking for me. Back home by 9.00 am and then out again after coffee. We drove down to the Local Tip to dump the original computer chairs. I am being forced to sit on the first pair of new replacements. The second pair of new replacements are supposed to be delivered on Christmas Eve. I bet they won’t be.

The Establishment was complaining about The Crown on Netflix so it sounded worth watching. I am about as anti-monarchy as one can get without committing murder but this dramatisation of the historical background to my life affected me in a way I didn’t predict. Of course, the whole premise on which their position is founded remains just as untenable but I found myself genuinely sympathising with the psychotic characters the family ‘business’ threw up. The complete and utter loneliness of The Queen Mother, The Queen and Prince Charles is shocking. The aimless, lack of purpose of Philip, Margaret and Diana is painful and destructive. And for what?

Pauline’s got to repaint a section of the ceiling this afternoon. I was opening a bottle of red wine with a ‘plunger action’ cork screw. The cork went straight down into the bottle followed by Rioja fountaining up in my face, on the kitchen floor and over kitchen cupboards. As I was wiping everything down, I suddenly spotted a wide pattern of spray stains across the ceiling. It wouldn’t sponge off so Pauline is tasked with restoration today. We have a 5 litre tub of paint set aside for the walls and ceiling. The slightest mark that appears gets touched up immediately.

There are some compensations that come with Christmas. I’m allowed to drink sherry without being seen as a maiden aunt. It’s a bit of a stretch, I know, but who drinks sherry these days? I love ice cold, bone dry, Manzanilla sherry. I only ever seem to drink it on special occasions. Pauline has bought me two different Bodega’s offerings to contrast and compare. Well, someone should do it. Why not me?

Friday, 18th December, 2020

Up at 6.00 am on a dark and damp morning. The temperature says 11C/52F but it feels distinctly cooler in the breeze. I drive Pauline to Sainsburys and then set off on my walk. It is not pleasant. The roads have taken on a lot of rain over night and large, kerbside puddles with cars wizzing past make me nervous. I don’t fancy a soaking. the air is damp and uninviting. Still, I work up a sweat by the time it’s over. Pauline and I arrive simultaneously and drive home for coffee.

We have an appointment with 3 fresh salmon at Tesco at 9.00 am so we are out of the house quite quickly. One of the things about the poor management of this government over the entire period of the pandemic is that decision making has been late and indecisive and communication has been muddled and duplicitous. As a result, the population have found it difficult to plan their lives. I couldn’t care less about Christmas but the freeing of restrictions will be paid for with a very heavy price of infection and death. Two weeks ago, the infection rate was down to 14,000 per day which is bad enough in itself but, yesterday, it was more than 35,000 within 3 days of relaxation. Everything has consequences often unforeseen.

Turkey farmers, sprout producers, Christmas Pudding manufacturers, Stilton Cheese producers will have brought their production lines to a climax just as we are slimming down or cancelling our celebrations completely. Prices are already being cut hard. I’ve given up buying Stilton altogether. It’s just too rich for me nowadays but Pauline collected 6 full sides of fresh, Scottish salmon at half the normal price. Today it was just £5.50/€6.10 per Kilo. Let’s hope it doesn’t impact on future production.

I don’t know if I’ve told you but I’m not a fan of Brexit and it will have so many unexpected downsides that the Brextremists wouldn’t even have considered. One would have thought that everybody had taken the problems of integrated supply lines in the manufacturing industries and the food import/export lines in to account, would have considered integrated defence and the Schengen Information Systems as important for future development but I wonder how many considered the Website Domain extension – .Eu?

My web domain is www.jrsanders.eu. I only use it as a shell link base at the moment but I am intending to redesign and update it. I am a committed European. My website is European. From the end of December, this will not be viable. We lose the .eu extension. My webhost has offered me a work-around which involves registering my domain with their Belgian office and continuing as if nothing has happened. If only the rest of our arrangements could be sorted out as easily.

Saturday, 19th December, 2020

A lovely, bright and sunny start to the day although we weren’t intending to go out at all. After breakfast, we were due to renew our passports. They expire today along with the past decade. Unfortunately, our renewal will not identify us as Europeans which we are.

We went on line and had to do just three things:

• Record our old passport details.
• Take a passport photograph.
• Pay a £75.00/€83.00 each.

Everything went well until we submitted our photographs. I had complied with every stipulation:

• Use a plain, light-coloured background
• Keep even lighting and no shadows
• With a plain expression and face in full view
• No headwear
• Eyes fully visible

The website rejected my photos because they said the lighting was not bright enough, the colouring was not natural enough and my eyes were not open enough. How can one show disdain with open eyes?

We tried three times with rejection each time and were so annoyed that we went out immediately and had it done at the Post Office as the Christmas post crowds built up behind us. The process to 15 mins and cost us an extra £16.50/€18.25 each. It was a cheap price to pay for such efficiency and what lovely people!

Sunday, 6th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 2 (again)

This time, for the first time for many years, we will have to apply for a Green Card to drive in Europe. This is the sort of thing the mad Brexiteers were desperate for. It makes one despair! However, we intend to be vaccinated as soon as we can and to restart our travels this Summer. We will fly to Athens in late August for a pre-booked (roll over booking from this year) flight and hotel. If it looks possible, we may do a Portsmouth -Santander trip and rent a villa for a few weeks in Murcia for the Summer months. We may do a month in November and again in February 2022 in the Canaries. Our minds are open to all of these possibilities predicated on the vaccine keeping us safe. For now, we are quarantined (sort of).

Monday, 7th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 3 (again)

A dismal day that opened with quite a sign of frost and soon turned wet. We are not going out other than, possibly, to the local post box. Today is completing Christmas cards. I’ve printed out about 40 newsletters. Pauline has written about 60 cards. I have printed and she has labelled about 60 envelopes with addresses. Most have now got stamps on them but the International ones are still to be dealt with.

This year will involve kitchen scales and the Post Office website where we are paying for and printing out our own address/stamp labels for international postage. It’s great fun!

Pauline has been toiling away for hours on the kitchen table with cards, envelopes, labels and stamps all coming together.

BT has just contacted me to say that my full-fibre broadband contract is up for renewal and they can offer me an upgrade from 350mbs to 900mbs for £10.00/€11.00 extra per month. What is there to consider?

Our wine buying trip to France on Friday was intended to save us 50% of the price we might pay in UK. Sometimes, people doubt such too-goo-to-be-true claims. This morning, I thought I would make a fairly idle check. I bought 60 bottles of Rioja which Tesco sells at £8.50/€9.40. It would have cost me £510.00/€564.00. Actually, I paid £2.99/€3.30 amounting to a total of ££179.40/€198.00. These savings are ridiculous saving but nice. Unfortunately, we will never see them again…unless we move abroad.

Tuesday, 8th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 4 (again)

Our lives are graduated by deaths. They are inescapable. If you are a regular, you will know that I am obsessed with time and its passing. My Blog is essentially my attempt to control and direct this obsession. More than 57 years ago on Friday, November 22nd, 1963, John Kennedy was shot dead in his car. I was 12 years old. I didn’t have a radio or television so that I first learned about it at 9.00 am on the Saturday morning as I got on the Grammar School coach in Wetmore Park, Burton upon Trent to go to play a rugby match in Birmingham. Another lad whispered to me, Have you heard that Kennedy’s been shot? Even at that young age, the news hit me like a brick in the face. For my generation, Kennedy represented the modern world in to which I was travelling. It felt like a hope had died. I have never forgotten the image of that precise moment with its smell of adolescent boys mingling with sports liniment and leather boot dubbin.

On the 16th of August, 1977, Elvis Presley died at the age of 42 of drug abuse at home. My generation had already rejected him just as we rejected our parent’s culture but it did feel like a real moment in time. I was living alone in a grubby little flat in a former brothel in a grimy, post-industrial, northern town. A year later, I would be preparing to get married and live in the first house we would own together.

On Sunday, 31 August 1997, having flown home from Athens the day before, we woke up tired to the news that Princess Diana had died in a car accident in Paris. Pauline immediately suggested that it wouldn’t have been an accident and that feeling has persisted over the years. Diana was making waves in the British establishment, very welcome waves that were rocking the monarchy. We weren’t bothered about her per se but the movement she was creating we had longed for.

On this day, 4o years ago, John Lennon died in the street. The Beatles had been the backdrop to my teenage years. Their ubiquity had almost begun to irk. One had almost become inured to the sound of their presence in every public space. They had been expropriated by alternative performers and played out in supermarkets, shopping malls, lifts and anywhere else that someone thought the silence needed to be filled by musak.

Lennon had ceased to mean a lot to me but I had come within inches of dying myself just 6 months before. In June, 1980, we were driving to school when a lunatic, coming the other way, went out of control on the bend and drove straight through our new car. Ambulance men thought I was dead. I was hospitalised for two weeks with brain bruising and off work for the best part of a year. It changed my life. Unlike Lennon’s, however, my life started again.

Wednesday, 9th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 5 (again)

Up at 6.00 am on a dark and dank morning. Tesco’s Delivery are expected between 6.30am – 7.30 am. They arrive, helpfully and comfortably after orange juice and tea, at 7.30 am. We don’t usually have our shopping delivered so, on this occasion, I took advantage and ordered lots of heavy, bottled water

A year ago, my broadband download speed from fibre-to-the-cabinet was 33mps. For the past few months, I have had fibre-to-the-door and a download speed of 330mps. Yesterday, that download speed was ratchetted up to nearly 900mps. This is an incredible magnification and means we are almost up to the Gigabit delivery we have been hoping for. I could happily work from home now but I won’t. Aaaaaahhhhh!

Even so, our Office/Study is one of the most used rooms in the house. Five years after the furniture was fitted, the chairs are showing deterioration. We have two new ones arriving today.

I will order a new Desktop computer from HP in January and then look to replace our two laser printers with a wireless one soon after. I want us to be able to print from two computers and two iPads wirelessly which will make life so much easier.

Thursday, 10th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 6 (again)

A dark morning with a brooding sky but relatively mild not dropping below 8C/47F over night. I’m feeling fat. it’s going to be a long, hard session in the gym this morning.

Just in case you didn’t receive our Christmas card and the Poison Dwarf may have missed it, here is a copy. We’ve chosen a robin this year just to make a change.

We tended not to include a copy of our newsletter to regular Blog readers because it is basically a review of the year which is chronicled in greater detail across the Blog. However, it is so well crafted that I include a copy here.

I think I was drawn in by the similarity with the dining chairs which are so comfortable. Well, the Hospice Shop will benefit from my foolishness and we have already ordered two new ones.

Friday, 11th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 7 (again)

A mild but gloomy morning. We have an early, wet fish delivery. It comes from a local supplier based on the mouth of the River Arun as it runs in to the sea. It is delivered direct to our door in boxes packed with ice. Today it was fresh, King Scallops, Fresh Monkfish and frozen, raw King Prawns. The quality is, as usual, fantastic.

Pauline’s Dream

Pauline’s dream is to eat big, fat scallops. She will do on Christmas day for her Starter. This Christmas will be our first alone for 40 years. We have always shared it and one of our company has a serious allergy to shellfish. This year, we are taking the opportunity to indulge our choices. We will have a

Scallop, Monkfish & King Prawn Gratin – First Course

Every year we eat turkey. I’m sure most of you do too. This year, we are free to break out and we have ordered a Goose. Pauline has been enjoying researching cooking recipes and these are the accompaniments we have chosen:

Roast Goose – Main Course

• Herbs (rosemary, sage, bay and thyme)
• Spice like cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger, star anise
• An orange & lemon, halved
• A few crushed garlic cloves
• Aromatic veg like carrots, onions, celery/celeriac, fennel, parsnips

Succulent, Aromatic Goose accompanied by Rioja

Homemade Christmas Pudding & Homemade Vanilla Ice-cream – Sweet

Life has been made a little easier today by the announcement that our quarantine has been reduced to 10 days which means we are free after the weekend.

Saturday, 12th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 8 (again)

All the way from Acton, Massachusetts

I don’t do Christmas but I do like getting post. I run like a an over enthusiastic puppy to collect it every time I hear the postman. Today, I received a card from my old friend, Jonathan, who has lived in USA for at least 45 years. It is probably nearly 50 years since we met. I always intended to go over but things got in the way. Well, this morning, I walked down High Street, Acton, Massachusetts and found Jonathan’s house.

Unfortunately, I was only on Google Earth but it was an enjoyable experience and helps me to ‘place’ my old friends in time and space.

By the way, the new, computer chairs we ordered and which I was so looking forward to using turned out to be absolutely rubbish. Hard, un-cushioned seating with thin, unforgiving arms, they looked and felt ‘cheap’ which I don’t think they were at £125.00 each.

L-R : Old chair, New chair, Dining chair

I think I was drawn in by the similarity with the dining chairs which are so comfortable. Well, the Hospice Shop will benefit from my foolishness and we have already ordered two new ones.

I’ve let Pauline choose and order these so that the blame is deflected away from me. Meanwhile, my penance is to sit on very hard chairs until the new ones arrive. I can feel it cutting off the blood supply as I type.

Sunday, 29th November, 2020

Lovely bright, mild day. Sunday, political programmes, newspapers. The Tories are revolting! No, the Tories are revolting against the lockdown conditions. If you ever thought Trump was an aberration, make no mistake. He was just Toryism writ large. A few decades ago, Thatcherism saw unemployment as a price worth paying. Now Death is a price worth paying as long as it isn’t their own. This strain of right wing, populist thuggery is so depressing and we must eradicate it. Trump’s been dumped. Next must be the Tories.

It’s still November but Christmas has come to our street. This morning, neighbours all around were holding ladders for each other as their lights went up. This evening they are being tried out.

Any sort of Brexit is a disaster as the people in the Sunderland Nissan plant who voted for it are suddenly realising, as the fishermen in their droves who voted for it are suddenly realising and the farming community who voted for it in the belief that the EC subsidies would be maintained and markets would be enhanced are suddenly realising. Even more surprised are those brainless holiday home owners who liked to spend half the year abroad and half at home in UK as we used to do. Suddenly, they are screaming, We woz robbed. when they learn that they can only spend 90 days in any 6 month period. We only wanted to keep out the immigrants, they said as they temporarily emigrated to their European home. At the risk of sounding Biblical, You reap what you sow.

We are hoping to get across the Channel this week for a final shopping trip. We’ve booked the Tunnel crossing and just hope the French still let us in. I will keep you updated.

Monday, 30th November, 2020

Cool and little bit misty this morning. The view on Sifnos this morning is even less inviting. Given the lower quality of home building, heating and insulation on the island, it will certainly feel damp and cool.

I was amused yesterday to read that Greeks, who are experiencing quite a difficult second wave of Covid infection having done rather well in the first phase, attribute the second wave of the pandemic to the opening of tourism in summer practically without restrictions. People on Sifnos are saying just what the right wingers in England are saying about the control conditions imposed on them by central government. They observe that there is no infection on the island but they are being controlled just as much as Athens and Thessaloniki and where infection is rife. Like the right wingers here, they don’t seem to combine the two ideas and realise the movement of people could change that position completely.

Of course, France is under lockdown with limitations on citizen’s movement from their homes other than for specific reasons. They and we when we travel have to complete a form stating the legitimate purpose for our movement.

We have ordered £550.00/€615.00 worth of wine but have to travel to pick it up. We have been instructed by the company to tick Box 2 which says we are permitted to run errands to purchase basic commodities available in a business allowed to provide that service. Who knows whether it will work. Last time we went, we filled in the same form but no one asked us for it.

Tuesday, 1st December, 2020

Happy December 2020 to you all. Special best wishes to Bob. Tomorrow sees the end of the second lockdown. We are expecting just one more in the New Year after Christmas jollities are over. Of course, we are volunteering for an extra lockdown by attempting to drive to France on Friday. 3  – 4 hours shopping will result in a ‘nominal’ quarantine of 2 weeks. Actually, we will take another test on Thursday for the ONS programme we are in although it will be at least 6 days before the result returns. 

We are a little unsure what the French Border Force will say to our application to enter but we will take it as it comes. It will be a nice day out to Folkestone otherwise although we are going rather early in the morning and it is forecast to rain. 

News from my brother has prompted me to seek an urgent prostate test. Pauline & I walked down to the surgery with a written request for my doctor. 

What a beautiful day for a walk. The sun was strong in our eyes, the birds were singing as if Spring had begun and there was no time like the present. All around us the world was bursting with optimism. I must admit, I still feel optimistic about life. This afternoon, Easyjet contacted me about a flight to Athens we have rolled over for late August 2021 and my heart leapt with anticipation. Our Octogenarian neighbours across the road say they will be spending Christmas at home without family just as we will but they are looking forward to flying back to Australia sometime in the new year. We look forward.

Wednesday, 2nd December, 2020

Busy and quite cool morning. Up at 6.00 am. How dark it is. Out by 6.45 am and still dark, cold – 5C/41F – and uninviting. Did my 5 mile walk as the sun rose with a pleasing pink light.

My hands and nose were cold but my body was sweating by the time I got back to the car. As soon as we’d arrived home, I received a phone call from my doctor, not much more than 18 hrs after writing to her, offering a consultation prior to a prostate test. Very impressive.

Skinny Liz sent an email round the family yesterday with a photograph that engendered fear & dread. It was of the the figures that Mum would trot out every Christmas and feature in a straw-topped Manger on display in the Lounge which we children were, generally, excluded from. As a confirmed and hardened atheist, for me this display is merely sentimental in value. It also represents one of those intangible links between brothers and sisters.

For me, the figures still strongly evoke authority, coercion, narrow mindedness allied to blind faith which I felt dominated my life at home. Ever since I was able to reason for myself, I have rejected what these figures represent. Having said that, the fact that they are over 80 years old (Even older than Ruth) and were taken by Liz in boxes with London stamps on them and wrapped in copies of The Guardian dated 1975 makes them interesting and moving. I’d love to know who was reading The Guardian in our house then.

Thursday, 3rd December, 2020

Very strange morning – cool with heavy rain in the darkness as we got up at 6.30 am in readiness for a workman to arrive and build some heavy, wooden furniture in our garden. Rather him than me as his frozen, wet hands sparked up an electric drill in a downpour.

We’ve got the next Covi-19 test today. We need the money. I also had a phone call from my doctor offering me an immediate Prostate Specific Antigen or PSA test in the next few days. This is such a fantastic service. She told me that I would automatically be referred to my local hospital for follow up.

We’ve got this age old dilemma of cards or not cards this Christmas. I know Ruth will be saving postage again but we can’t quite bring ourselves to do it yet. We drove out to buy an armful of stamps. We were out for about 5 mins and came home to find a Parcelforce card on the mat to say they had been unable to deliver a parcel. The postman had left it 6 mins ago. We got in the car, shot round the area and found his van. He’s a lovely man. He handed over the parcel which had an Ebay inscription on it. Had I ordered something from Ebay by mistake?

It was a sizeable box which we opened immediately we got it home. like small children at Christmas. And that’s what it was, a Christmas present from our lovely, Huddersfield friends, Margaret & Tony. A hamper of goodies from our favourite farm shop just half a mile from where we used to live a decade ago. What joy!

Friday, 4th December, 2020

Oh, what a day! Up at 4.00 am to pitch black rain and not warm. Driving out at 5.00 am to Folkestone. Lovely, quiet roads. I really enjoy night time driving. The drive should take us 90 mins or so. We also build in a 30 mins contingency so estimate 2 hrs. Although it looks as if we are closer to the Channel Tunnel to a Geographical illiterate like me, actually, we have to drive North to get South East. On that basis, we should have driven in to the Tunnel check-in by 7.00 am at the latest.

Experienced Blog readers will know that I have no idea where I am going even in my locality never mind on a longish journey like this whereas Pauline loves navigation and route planning. In many ways, although we’ve driven this route from Surrey and Sussex for a decade, Pauline would rather try a new way each time just to test herself.

Driving North on the A24 – A272 – A23 – M23 – M25 – M26 all went well. On to the M20 and it all started to go pear shaped. We were informed that a lorry had jack-knifed and gone through the central reservation around Leeds Castle area. We were diverted on to the A20. That’s no big problem because it runs parallel but it was busy. With so much traffic pushed on to a smaller road, just one, unattended roadworks caused miles of tailback costing us lots of time. Not only did we miss our check-in time but our Departure time as well.

As we inched our way through Kent, we began to see SNOW. We had pledged to never see that stuff again. We were plagued with it in the North! The further we inched, the thicker the standing snow got. Ploughs had been despatched to clear the road but it was banked up at the sides. Through the roadwork blockage and we were on our way at speed with a totally empty road ahead. When we arrived, we were allocated the next train with just time for a cup of coffee and the toilet. We reflected that we would never wee there again as Europeans. (Ah!hhhh!)

The train was on time but very quiet and we drove off into sunshine. Straight to Calais Wine Store with no sightings of Asylum Seekers other than those poor souls huddled together at a soup caravan. The wine store was totally empty. We were the only customers. They had paid our travel through the Tunnel. If we had booked it ourselves, it would have cost £250.00/€278.00 day return. In return for our travel, we pledged to spend a minimum of £500.00/€556.00 on wine. In doing so, we would save around £520.00 on UK prices for the same wines. This is and has been for years a great deal. This is, almost certainly, our last visit and we bitterly resent that.

A quick drive on to Auchan for some food. You can’t beat a French chicken, some cheeses and then Pauline likes to browse the Utensiles de Cuisine (Kitchen Tools) section before we leave.

As we are about to leave, a massive hailstorm hits the area but we have no time to wait. A run to the car and we drive back to the Terminal Tunnel sous La Manche. We were waved straight through on to the next, available train. The French asked us for none of the official ‘permission’ papers. The UK force reminded us we had to quarantine and then waved us through. We were back in Folkestone by 13.55 (UK time).

As soon as we landed, we found that the M20 motorway was still completely blocked all lanes driving West. Pauline perked up immediately. Here was a real life challenge. She decided that we would take the local, A259 coast road home. What a brilliant idea that was although the sat. nav. didn’t like it.

We drove through Hythe, Dymchurch, Romney Marshes, Rye, Hastings, Bexhill, Pevensea, Polegate, Lewes, Shoreham by Sea, Worthing and home. We were back home by around 5.30 pm – later than expected but safely and having really enjoyed our journey.

Saturday, 5th December, 2020

Quarantine Day 1 (again)

We didn’t get up until 9.00 am! Can’t remember how many years it has been since we did that – probably after a drive back from Greece some 6 years ago. First thing Pauline did was book a Sainsbury’s delivery slot for Wednesday. Interestingly, we picked 6.30 am – 7.00 am and it was ‘free’. I wonder why? Many other slots were only charged at a £1.00/€1.12 but we like ‘Free’! 

The day will be filled by many jobs but, particularly, Christmas card signing and addresses + stamps printed and affixed. They will be posted on Monday. I have to complete my Newsletter to accompany the cards. After only 4 hrs sleep on Thursday night and 6 hours of driving after so little across this past 12 months, we are both rather tired and not inclined to do much at all. We are already on episode 3 of Series 2 of The Crown. We may watch some more tonight.

We have just taken our last trip abroad as European citizens. It is something we will never forgive or forget. However, our current passports were issued on 19th October, 2010 and we now have to apply for new ones. On that day, we were both only 59 years old and we went to the Registry Office to register the death of Pauline’s Mum after 96 years of tenacious life. We also had to put out the money for her milkman in the brown envelope she had pre-prepared. It was the momentous end of an era. We will be almost 80 yrs old when we next have to get new passports. We are determined to do it and will work to make them European again.

Sunday, 22nd November, 2020

I limped down to breakfast this morning. My right foot was paining me. It is the result of an old, war wound. Well, two years old anyway.

Wherever I go, I damage my feet. I walked into the shower on a Greek ferry going down the Adriatic, caught the underside of my foot on the door strip and slice a chunk out which continued to bleed for hours. Poor Pauline spent most of her evening trying to staunch it with towels. Of course, anti coagulation medication didn’t help. When we arrived in our Greek house and bleary-eyed after a long drive, I got up and walked into the kitchen table immediately breaking my big toe. That is just one trip. I’m always doing it.

Two years ago this month, we were staying in this villa in southern Tenerife. Once again, cool, poised John fell and hurt his foot and ankle. It immediately swelled up and turned a fiery colour. I don’t know if there was any bone damage involved but the tendons felt torn and the bruising was horrible. I forced myself to keep using it so as not to spoil the holiday for Pauline but I have paid for it ever since. I suspect, at my age, I always will. I’m going out to punish it now on the treadmill.

Monday, 23rd November, 2020

Up at 6.00 am on a dark and quite chilly morning to do our Sainsbury’s shop because we will have to be at home tomorrow. We called in at Aldi on the way back for a load of Christmas chocolates for our latest ‘Food Bank’ offering. Last week it was Toiletries but, usually, it is tins of food. Someone from our Development tweeted yesterday that her husband, who drives for a Food Bank in his spare time, had just emptied their fridge and delivered it to a family of 6 who hadn’t eaten since Friday. One’s heart misses a beat to read such things and one’s mind questions, If they haven’t afforded to eat, what have they done about heating?

Back in the comfort of our home, Pauline set about making chicken stock in the garden and I indulged myself investigating a new Desktop computer. I bought my last one just as we were moving in to this house which is almost 5 years ago. That usually is the good, working life of a PC. The current one is fine but has developed a startup annoyance which could be resolved by upgrading the Bios although that is not without its risks. Computers are so cheap now. I was paying £3000.00+/€3,380.00+ for a Desktop 20 years ago. This new one will cost me just £1500.00/€1,690.00 and the improvement is immense.

For quite a long time now, I have been a fan of (HP) Hewlett Packard. I’ve used them for the last 10 years and their reliability, on-line support and general customer service is excellent.

Two new elements particularly attract me. HHD is being replaced by SSD for the first time for me. My first computer was run on ‘floppy disk based software’. All subsequent computers over the past 30 years have featured Hard Disk Drives. HDDs fragment data due to the rotating nature of its operation. In application, this means that computers with HDD boot slower than those with SSD. File transfers are slower as well. Solid State Drives have no moving parts and all data is stored in integrated circuits. What makes it particularly attractive is its dramatically reduced access time.

The monitor is highly adjustable both up and down and tilting. What I’m particularly looking forward to is the incorporated automatically pop-up webcam and microphones which will allow video conferencing more comfortably than with my iPad. This will have to be my Christmas present. Oh, I do love Christmas!

Tuesday, 24th November, 2020

Mild all night and continued in to this morning. We are having a large -10 kgs – fresh fish delivery this morning. Our supplier has moved from being almost slightly reluctant to very, very keen for our order. The core of their business has always been supplying high end restaurants and hotels. Suddenly, they have found their market disappearing. Gradually, they have seen a new market in people like us.

We’ve also got the ‘snagging’ plumber arriving to replace a couple of sink waste pop-ups. I’m feeling so optimistic today that I might clean the car. The latest news is that we might fit a final shopping trip to France in before Christmas. We are living a life of near quarantine as it is so ‘almost’ meeting that demand on return will not be a problem.

The Retail’s desperate Christmas advertising feels rather hollow and, particularly down here, snow looks like a Dickensian anomaly.

Wednesday, 25th November, 2020

Delivery vans and drivers are everywhere and all the time at the moment. I suspect the mould is broken and this process will not significantly decline after the pandemic. Late last night and without warning a delivery driver, who is clearly working very long hours, rang our bell and propped a huge box up at the door. Since the additional hard standing has been installed in our back garden, we have been gradually increasing outdoor storage. The box contained a ….. box. It is to store garden furniture cushions.

Of course, the downside of these deliveries is that things come flat-packed. First thing this morning the screwdriver has been put on charge and, later, the box will be built. All of this process has been to declutter the garage and make space for the gym. I will put the screwdriver back on charge this evening in readiness for the rustic, outdoor cooking table that is being delivered tomorrow.

The one thing that is beginning to dawn on me is that pandemic isolation has encouraged home development which will just come to fruition as vaccines will free us to travel again. If we are vaccinated successfully by Easter, we intend to spend the Summer driving in Europe, taking up our already booked and paid-for stay in an Athens hotel and our already booked and paid-for flights to Greece. We can also think about Winter in the sun again. It is looking increasingly fortunate that we didn’t send our passport off for renewal and that we may get a quick French shopping trip in before Christmas.

When we lived in Yorkshire and worked in Lancashire, driving over the Pennines in this season rewarded us with theatrically dramatic skies. We are finding that the Sussex coastline is just as rewarding at the moment.

Thursday, 26th November, 2020

We had our Flu jabs a few weeks ago and, as usual, I reacted with a bruised arm and a mild bout of Flu while Pauline had nothing. Yesterday, I began to feel a little lethargic and developed a sore throat. It is worse today and my ears are really uncomfortable when I swallow. I’m streaming and sneezing. In fact, I think I’m dying.

Even so, like the martyr to the cause I am, we were up at 6.00 am for Tesco and I was doing my 5 mile walk at 7.00 am. Shattered but self-satisfied, I arrived back at the car before Pauline. We were going to build our new Garden Storage Chest which we were stopped from doing by rain yesterday. I girded my loins, made sure the screwdriver was fully charged and then did what Pauline told me. I couldn’t believe how easy it was even including installing the hydraulic arm lifts. We were finished in 20 mins. and locking it up in the garden. Dream job. Later today, the cooking table will be delivered and tomorrow we will need to find time for that.

Did you know that there are more Food Banks in England than MacDonalds? I certainly didn’t. Louise Casey informed me tonight. She said she had been touring the Country’s Food Banks to understand the actual situation. She told stories of Mothers who hadn’t eaten for days in order to feed their children, of a Mother who was so hungry she tore open the packaging to a cake and stuffed the whole thing straight into her mouth before she even got out of the building. These are stories to make one so angry and to move one to tears. It had that effect on me. It makes the small contributions we provide seem wholly inadequate.

It puts our position in sharp relief. Often pensions become less valuable over time. This can be because of inflation. Ours is protected against that. Often it can be vis à vis workers from one’s profession who get above inflation pay rises. Pauline & I are just coming up to 12 years of Retirement and the Teaching Profession has not increased its pay position since the 2008 financial crash. Equally, inflation has been so low that our capital has held its value. I am expecting that to change in the next few years but we have had a good run.

Friday, 27th November, 2020

I have always planned my life line, always looked forward to the future, to the next stage and, generally, let the past drop away into a discrete box filed: MY FAILURES – EXPERIENCE TO DRAW ON. On the Time-Life continuum, of course, there is the NOW. I have never been able to live in the NOW. I was always planning for the FUTURE and drawing on the PAST. This approach has borne fruit in that planning, working, saving, investing, speculating has provided me/us with a very comfortable and rewarding retirement but I still struggle with the present.

Can you enjoy a sunset? I can look at one and go through the expected motions of saying, That’s nice but all the time thinking …. but there’s no point or future value in it. If it doesn’t move me forward, doesn’t contribute to the next 5-year plan, it doesn’t have real value. When we talk about the lunacies of the government or the iniquities of the immigration system, Pauline’s brother-in-law always sings, Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think. This is a solidly ‘Live for the Moment’ sentiment from which my mind instinctively recoils.

The one occasion that I can release myself from the Past – Future continuum is in music. Wonderful music reduces me to tears often embarrassingly so and I have no idea where that emotion comes from or why. I had the bizarre experience a couple of days ago in our home gym of sitting, pedalling furiously on the bike while watching a modern version of La Bohème from the Opera Australia in the Sydney Opera House of finding tears not sweat streaming down my face as I bathed in the beauty of the music and its sentiment. I was in the moment until I realised what was happening. Then, of course, I began to concentrate on cycling time, distance covered, calories burned, future health.

I suffered a small bleed behind at the back of my one useful eye about 18 months ago. I have been monitored by the Diabetic Eye Screening service every 3 months ever since. I went again this morning. The photography showed clearly that there had no deterioration which is wonderful news going forward. Must be all that crying has lubricated it.

Friday, 27th November, 2020

A lovely, mild morning. We just remained in double figures over night and only reached 13C/55F all day but, without a breeze, it felt lovely. Early trip to Asda and then down to Littlehampton Marina for a walk in the sunshine. Of course, by the time we got there it had clouded over and, by the time we got home it was sunny again. Still, it was lovely to walk around the quay.

Few people were around. A couple of Jet Skis were in the water but, with the cafes and restaurants closed, there was not a lot to draw people.

The rest of the day is a bit of gym work, newspapers, football and then another episode of The Crown. It’s not the sort of thing we would normally watch but, when I heard how annoyed the establishment was with it, I had to see some. It’s only on Netflix so I took out one month’s subscription for it. Then I found out that there are 4 Series of 10 hourly episodes. Can we / Do we want to watch 40 hours of docu-soap in just 30 days? Well, we have done the first 3 episodes of Series 1 and we are already gripped. After all, we were born in 1951 and this really is our history. I will probably have to buy a second month to finish it.

Sunday, 15th November, 2020

Heavy rain over night although we slept through it. A nice, sunny start to the morning and we went for a walk round the Development. The woodland path has reverted to a brook temporarily.

We decided that it was a path too far and walked home in the sunshine. We had no sooner opened the door and made some coffee than it began to absolutely throw it down and the torrential rain turned to hail. It didn’t feel that cold but who am I to understand atmospherics?

This is Sifnos this morning – empty, forlorn and also flooded. It is 6 years ago today that we arrived back from Athens where we visited the National Bank of Greece to collect the second and last tranche of the payment for our house. We transferred the money to UK and closed the account even though the Bank manager tried valiantly to persuade us to invest it back in to Greece.

Until 6 years ago, we were spending 180 days in Greece each year which was the maximum time we were allowed without paying taxes to the Greek government. It was a comfortable arrangement. Now, this descent in to Brexit madness means that we would only be allowed 90 days in any one year which would make maintenance of a second home in Europe quite restrictive. This is particularly true of a home which is relatively far away like Greece. Spain, on the other hand, is a different proposition. We can put our car on the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander and drive to a holiday home in just a few hours. Worth considering!

Monday, 16th November, 2020

Up at 6.00 am in preparation for the final day of work in the back garden. The workers arrive at 7.30 am on an overcast but mild morning. Fortunately, it will be dry all day and for most of the week. The workers have left the most difficult area to finish today. It requires quite a lot of paving slab cutting. After 5 days, we will be glad for it to be over so that we can get our home back. We definitely chose the right company to do the job. We are delighted with their work.

However, we are still in our back garden. It is not a very expansive experience. Eleven years ago this week, we were spending this week driving around the Kent coastal area in search of a new property. I was keen to be much nearer to the Tunnel for a quick hop across to the Continent.

We drove down from Yorkshire and stayed with P&C for a couple of days. I can’t believe they have virtually not changed over the past 11 years – well, Pauline hasn’t anyway. Eleven years is a long time. In 11 years, I will be 80 yrs old. Can you imagine it? I do hope I get there!

Just 2 years ago this week, we were in a villa in Golf del Sur, Tenerife. We had a lovely heated pool and gorgeous weather but the shops were quite a long walk away and the property was a bit tired inside.

This time last year, we were in a much more modern and well appointed villa with heated pool in Costa Adeje. We had a wonderful array of shops with a fantastic Supermurcado in easy walking distance. It was a wonderful month. We were booked to return for the months of May and November but both have disappeared into the Covid mists.

Now we need to stay positive, get the vaccination and move on. We’ve probably only got another 20 years of travelling. Need to make the most of it!

Tuesday, 17th November, 2020

We didn’t get up until 7.30 this morning. It is one of the most unusual things that has happened to me for a long time. I haven’t got a clue why but it put me out all morning. Received paperwork from our patio installers who finished yesterday to the effect that we had a 5 year warranty on all the work they had done and a 10 year warranty on the Brett paving slabs. It will all collapse when I’m 80!

Also heard from the legal firm acting to get our money back from the Tenerife villa in May. Their Spanish arm say they are confident of getting the £4,500.00/€5,022.00 back but the cost of doing so would be more than that and ‘costs’ cannot be reclaimed. My bank now have the decision: do they want to pay me from insurance or pursue the villa owner.

Any regular reader of the Blog will not disagree with my self-analysis when I observe that I am really weird. You don’t need to write. I know it. So, when I tell you that I am a huge fan of mouthwash and have been for many years, you will hardly raise an eyebrow.

You might look a little quizzical when I tell you that I know one bottle lasts me 2 weeks and that I don’t buy a bottle from the supermarket when I need one. I buy a carton of 24 bottles at a time delivered to my door. One bottle is usually priced between £5.50/€6.14 in the major supermarkets and, often, you can’t find it there at all. I never pay more than £2.50/€2.79 per bottle when I buy in bulk so a year’s supply costs me around £65.00/€72.50. Sounds a lot when you put it like that but there is a secret ingredient which makes it all worth while. CPC is the magic ingredient and my new best friend. 

Mouthwash can kill Coronavirus within 30 seconds of being exposed to it in a laboratory, a scientific study has found. The Cardiff University report said that mouthwashes containing Cetypyridinium Chloride (CPC) showed promising signs of combatting the virus.

University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff

Of course not all mouthwash producers include it but mine does. I only found this out today so I may have to order some more immediately in case there is a run on the world supply.

Wednesday, 18th November, 2020

It’s so warm, the birds think it is nesting time and Pauline is thinking of putting her bikini on. Well, perhaps this latter is a bit of an exaggeration but it is delightfully warm.

We have the bind of each needing a Driving Licence renewal and Passport renewal all around the end of this year

The Post Office offers a digital passport renewal service at a limited number of branches, but it costs 20% more than doing it on the government website. This involves handing over one’s old passport and having a photo taken. This service costs £91.50 per person so £183.00 for the two of us.

We want to hold on to our passports just in case we can nip over to France one more time in December.

Unfortunately, our Driving Licences also need an updated picture. They can be taken from our Passport records but ours will be too old to use. The Post Office will charge us again for photographs and renewal service at a rate of £21.50 per person so £43.00 for us both.Thank goodness Christmas is cancelled. I couldn’t afford that and £226.00 on Bureaucracy.

Of course, in April next year I will have to take the walk of shame and apply for another renewal of my Driving Licence because I will be 70. It all feels a bit like Greek State machinery. Fortunately, this one is free.

It’s not easy taking photographs whilst you’re driving and nearly 70 you know. We were amazed at the number of businesses in operation and the number of people out walking on the beach path. We had gone in to town for a cheap offer on MOUTHWASH! Fortunately, Pauline was driving.

Thursday, 19th November, 2020

Up at 6.00 am on a coolish morning. Only 9C/48F as we stepped out of the door. As usual, Pauline shopped while I did my 5 mile walk. I went in shorts but put a fleece on because the breeze was distinctly chilly. Pauline paid largely with our Covid Test Project payments. We have now each had 5 negative tests. The next one is in a month.

Home for coffee and the arrival of a plumber. We are coming towards the end of our 5-year warranty on our new property and everybody is reassessing to make sure that all snagging is complete. We were beginning to feel left out because we really didn’t have anything but Pauline decided that the sink pop-ups in two of the bathrooms were sticking and needed replacing. The plumber was booked for this morning but we finally received a call to rebook for next week so we drove out to Littlehampton Post Office.

You have to really search for Post Offices these days even though they perform some really important services to local communities. This one shares its premises with an Opticians just to be economical enough to survive. We wanted to enquire if we need to book an appointment to go and renew our Driving Licences in these Covid times. It is quite a time consuming process which included photography. Anyway, they were quite relaxed about it and told us to turn up when we’re ready. We will go tomorrow morning with our paperwork.

Now the back garden hard standing is finished, we can proceed with placing and adding additional furniture. I ordered a heavy-duty, rustic table for cooking on today – £170.00/€190.00. If it looks good and quality when we get it, I might order a second.

Friday, 20th November, 2020

Up early on a crisp morning. Cold but no real sign of frost. However, we went out to Littlehampton at 9.00 am to the Post Office and I wore CLOTHES for the first time since early March. I have lived in shorts and tee shirts for the past 8 months. Today, I was having my photo taken that will stick in my Driving Licence for the next 10 years. I have to look reasonable. The experience in the Post Office was wonderful. The staff were absolutely delightful. The process was slick and efficient. We were in, processed and out in about 10 mins.

Littlehampton town centre, like Worthing town centre, is populated by the sort of people we hardly ever see in our daily lives. There are many down-at-heel, ethnic minority, disabled, intellectually challenged, mentally unstable characters around. There are many empty shop premises emphasised by the general pandemic-rule closure of most of the rest. The whole atmosphere feels rather anti-social and uncomfortable. Outside the Post Office, a strange man was staggering around, singing something at the top of his voice. Someone else shouted, Tommy, shut up! and he shouted back that he always made a noise when he was happy.

On the way back, we called in at Asda for bananas – they do the best in the area. Usual routine, Pauline goes in to shop and I set off on a walk. Because I knew I wouldn’t have long, I restricted my walk to the carpark which is big but not picturesque. I photographed the electric car charging points. As you can see, it amounts to just 2. As I walked around, I counted up 700 parking spaces. Clearly, this is where the end of the combustion engine is not eagerly anticipated.

Two additional pieces of news this morning when we got home. Although we’ve barely used the heating since March, we have been informed that £200.00/€224.00 ‘Heating Allowance’ will drop into our bank account shortly. It’s bought us an outdoor cooking table. Earlier this year, my Broadband was upgraded to Fibre-to-the-Door which uprated my download service from 32 mbps to 330 mbps in an instant. Now we are told that our area is one of the first to receive full Gigabit service – 1000 mbps – and the work is starting this week. My cup runneth over.

Saturday, 21st November, 2020

Lovely, mild start to the day. We decided that we’d nip down to the beach for a quick breath of ozone and a walk. Actually, when we got there, so many people had had the same idea that we didn’t stay. I just stopped the car to get a photo of the wind surfers convention. There must have been about 30 of them some way out to sea on a turning tide.

I realised immediately why they were there when I go out of the car. The breeze off the sea was strong and cold. We drove home for hot coffee.

I’m afraid to say I spent the rest of the day reading political articles and watching sport – sometimes both at the same time. However, I watched the England v Ireland Rugby match in the gym – fulfilling my pledge to myself to not waste such occasions as a couch potato but combining it with exercise. I was more knackered than the players when they came off with a great English victory.

Sunday, 8th November, 2020

The internet is a wonderful thing. If you can’t travel physically, you can at least go virtually. This morning, as we all celebrated the return to civics and polity across the United States, rejoicing in the celebrations of good people and the rule of honesty and truth, I walked on a cloud of hope across the garden to our gym.

The sky was overcast outside but there was sunshine in my heart as I embarked on a 90 mins workout while sitting in the Teatro Dell’Opera Di Roma.

Well, actually I was working out on the treadmill and cycle in our gym watching/listening to a modernistic performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor from the Teatro Dell’Opera Di Roma on YouTube on my television.

It has been one of my favourite operas for many, many years but I have not revisited it for at least 10 years. It was wonderful to be reacquainted as I sweated profusely.

Monday, 9th November, 2020

Change of programme. We have all sorts of workers arriving early tomorrow. The garden workers will start at 7.30 am. The gym equipment installer will arrive around 9.00 am. We would normally be shopping at Sainsbury‘s but have switched to this morning instead. It is a misty, moisty morning – words which Mum liked to intone as some devout Primary School teacher on Speed.

One misty, moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather

The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (c. 1833)

It is (relatively) very warm this morning 16C/61F at 7.00 am as Pauline enters Sainsburys and I set off for my walk to Rustington war memorial.

Rustington is a delightfully middleclass, wealthy and thriving large-village-cum-small town with all the shops, restaurants and trendy cafes one might need. It is big on public garden displays and won the European Towns & Villages in Bloom 2012 competition. Unfortunately, it is dominated by the elderly. They get everywhere! Mobility aids abound and clog up the pavements. 

There are speciality shops as in the days of yore – An artisan Baker, three quality Butchers, Bank Branches that open, Hairdressers, Beauticians, Bookshops but only small, supermarket outlets. Everywhere are scattered Parks & Gardens plantings and Benches with Dedication Plaques. The planting is very much ‘old school’ as Summer Begonias are replaced with Winter Pansies. It is the sort of narrow culture that I have always tried to escape and I will come here to collect our Christmas Goose or for my morning walk but certainly not linger.

Tuesday, 10th November, 2020

Everything comes at once. Up at 6.00 am. Garden Landscapers arrived at 7.30 am – Van, Lorry, mini-digger, etc.. First thing they did was take the back gate off to enable them to get the digger in. Theodolite set up in the centre of the lawn and pegs banged in with strings attached the job got under way. This will be it for about a week. 

The drive is being covered in boards to keep it clean and undamaged so the gym equipment man with a replacement treadmill console had to park elsewhere and tread carefully as he made his way down the drive to the gym. The console which controls programs, modes, data, sound, etc., had some display glitches so is having to be totally replaced.

Peter, from Kent, arrived at 8.00 am and picked his way down the drive, past the machinery and over the gardener’s boards. It is already feeling quite strange to have people here particularly after our isolation since March.

Shock for our little village this morning. It was, for many years, renowned for its Horticulture and featured large areas covered by glasshouses. It was particularly know as a producer of culinary herbs but these glasshouse are gradually, increasingly rapidly, being pushed out by the demand for housing. Last night, in a building behind a car sales site, a new horticultural enterprise less than a mile from our house was discovered ….. by a fleet of police cars. Cannabis plants with a street value of £500,000.00/€560,000.00 were reportedly found. We have particularly fertile soil here.

Wednesday, 11th November, 2020

Day 2 of the garden paving work. Up at 6.00 am as the workers arrive by 7.30 am. Pauline thought they had said they would be working for 3 days. It seemed very quick to me and it turns out I was right. They won’t finish until at least Monday next week so double what we had wrongly understood.

The concrete mixer is fired up, new paving is starting to be laid and the whole area is beginning to take shape. This is all very nice but our usual modus operandi is disrupted and that it always a bit uncomfortable. We decided, for that reason, to go out for a short drive this morning. We went down through Worthing to Shoreham by Sea.

Of course, you could say we shouldn’t be doing this during the lockdown but today was interesting. Lots of people were out and about and a surprising number of inessential shops were open. Pauline pointed out a Trinket shop in our own village that was open. The garden centre appeared to be open by the lights on and the number of cars in the carpark. We drove past a Beautician’s which appeared to be open. There is certainly a sense down here of the lockdown being less seriously observed than it was last time. Who knows, we may pay for it although Pauline & I are shunning people at every turn.

Five years ago today, we were basking in 28C/85F of very humid atmosphere as we did a 2 hour walk around the coastline of south west Tenerife. Life was so different and IT WILL be different again. We will have a vaccination and be freed to start travelling again. Pauline said to me today that she is desperate to start going away for the winter months to the sunshine and warmth as soon possible.

Thursday, 12th November, 2020

Heavy rain over night although I slept so well I didn’t hear it. Beautiful, red sunrise this morning. The sky was completely backlit like stage lighting. We were up at 6.00 am and out by 6.50 am driving to Tesco. I don’t know why but the car park was quiet. What’s wrong with these people? Why do they need so much sleep? 

Anyway, it is a mild day which only reached 15C/59F but felt and smelt lovely. Pauline shopped for an hour while I walked for an hour. In tee-shirt and shorts, it felt quite delightful. It’s great to be swinging easily up the road as furrowed brows rush anxiously to work and children dawdle with heavy bags to school. My face and eyes say, Been there. Done that. but they are too preoccupied to notice.

Back home, the Landscape workers are hard at it. We say Hello and leave them to it. The Boss works very hard in muddy ground and I think, He doesn’t need to go to the gym. Actually, I fear for him as he chain-smokes throughout his 8 hour day in all weathers. It’s actually quite hard to get in our gym today because it’s barricaded with packs of patio flags and huge bags of Aggregate. 

It was so delightful this afternoon we decided to walk around the perimeter of our Development. After last night’s rain, the woodland path was a little tricky but the smell of fallen leaves rotting on rain-sodden ground is so redolent of a dying year that it is not to be missed.

We’ve been hearing a strange, hissing noise for a few days during working hours and all was revealed on our walk this afternoon. A metal bridge which normally connects the village over a dual carriageway to the railways station on the other side and which is very popular with workers in London City is being refurbished. A giant crane lifted it in one piece from its moorings and dumped it on open ground. It has now been wrapped in white screen material as the whole bridge is being sandblasted before being repainted. Amazing piece of engineering. Certainly makes our patio extension seem small beer!

Friday, 13th November, 2020

Well, Friday 13th seems to have gone alright. …. so far. It is a bright, mild day. Up at 6.00 am and out at 6.50 am for a Sainsbury’s shop at 7.00 am. Yesterday, we couldn’t get any skimmed milk from Tesco. This happened last lockdown. Is skimmed milk so niche?

We haven’t drunk any milk other than fat-free for the past 30 years. Our normal purchase is 3 x 2ltr of red top milk each week. Actually, we did carry dried milk with us for emergencies when we were travelling and it was helpful at times in Greece but that’s all. Suddenly it is off the shelves. 

At Sainsbury‘s this morning, it was just the same story although Pauline was able to get it in smaller bottles. I did my 5 mile walk while Pauline was shopping and I was surprised to find that, in spite of the warmth, I could see my breath this morning. At least it was sunny and dry for our garden workers who are really cracking on today. Just one more day’s work on Monday and it will be finished. They certainly earn their money. It is back breaking work. About 5 men turned up on the Tuesday delivering tools and materials and digging out but the main work has been left to a father and son team who have worked like trojans.

The village was very peaceful and pleasant as we walked down to post a parcel at the Co-Op/Post Office. If you’ve got to be locked down, there could be worse places.

Saturday, 14th November, 2020

Really mild morning. Beginning to wonder why we bother with central heating. It is dry and weakly bright. We decide to go down to the beach for half an hour. It is high tide – a particularly high tide – and the waves are crashing on the beach. Actually, there is only about a couple of metres of shingle showing and while I am standing on it to take pictures, a huge wave almost claims me for Poseidon‘s Kingdom. The power of the sea has to be seen and felt to be believed.

Those living in the retirement apartments across the road from the beach were advising caution this morning. The water was an angry, turgid brown laced with huge hanks of seaweed. It surged and crashed relentlessly as it neared turning point. Even the gulls couldn’t settle on the breakwaters.

Talking about retirement, I came across this old couple on the beach. I’m sure I’ve seen them somewhere before.

We’ve still got a bit of builder’s mud around at the moment. I’ve had to send Pauline in to clean the gym floor because I’ve walked some of  of it in. I’m being forced to watch the first Ashes test match 2013. Well, I don’t want to get in the way.

Sunday, 1st November, 2020

Our life is moving at two, conflicting paces along two, tectonic plates. Time moves rapidly on. The Summer is over. The Autumn is arriving. November already …. and yet life is closing down as travel is stopped, human interaction is minimalised, life’s experiences are put on hold.

It is hard to see a viable resolution to this hinterland of living. It is as if the pause button is being pressed, released and then pressed again. We should be in Tenerife today. We should have been lunching in the sunshine. This is where we were exactly a year ago on day 1 of 28.

As we move in to a 4 week Lock Down – although it remains to be seen how well it will be observed or how much it will be extended – Pauline’s haircut is in jeopardy and out garden landscaping is questionable as well. Neither would be fatal if we had to wait but these things all add up to stasis.

We nipped down to the beach this morning after watching slimy-toad Gove running rings round a complaisant Andrew Marr. Around 11.00 am, the high tide was just beginning to turn back towards France. Oh, how we wished to be on it!

Monday, 2nd November, 2020

Out early on a mercy mission. At 8.30 am, Pauline was on the phone and 15 mins later, we drove to Worthing town centre so that Pauline could bring her hair appointment forward by 3 weeks because of the impending lockdown. Apparently, it is a life and death situation. I was free to walk on the promenade and take photos. Incredibly warm, I was sauntering in short sleeved tee shirt and shorts.

I had to remind myself that it was November and I was walking into the sea with barely any clothes on. I admit, there were fishermen, dressed for a storm in oilskins, casting their rods over the side of the pier and old men on benches huddled over a cigarette fully garbed against potential winter but it was all unnecessary.

We drove home for coffee and then went out for a walk around our Development in wonderful sunshine. I only needed a short spell in the gym today but, once again, we have been justified in ploughing our own furrow. David Lloyd is closing down again on Wednesday and reopening …. they don’t know when. We have decided that we must keep going out and enjoying fresh air, sunshine and exercise as well as using our gym. If we can stay healthy, we will.

Tuesday, 3rd November, 2020

Heavy rain over night and strong winds but all is calm this morning although only 9C/48F and it hasn’t got above 12C/54F all day. The sun is out. The sky is blue. I’m in my shorts but also wearing a fleece outside. Up at 6.00 am and out to Sainsbury’s by 7.00 am.. Home for coffee, greet the window cleaners and make some contacts with contractors who are working for us over the next couple of weeks and then out to another beach for some sunshine on our faces and legs – free Vitamin D.

We did the 15 mins drive to Elmer Beach which is half way down the coast road to Bognor Regis. We have been there before when the tide was out and it looked more like a lunar landscape. Today, with the sea advancing, a beach walk was not possible.

Back home, I did an hour or so in the gym which is the joy of having it readily available for these cooler, less certain Autumn days. Instead of just sitting around watching the Politics Live debate, I was able to exercise both mind and body simultaneously.

Wednesday, 4th November, 2020

Beautiful morning although there was a hint of frost on the roofs and the temperature was only 4C/39F at 7.00 am. Half an hour later, it was double that as the sun began to take effect. We are not using the central heating and the kitchen was 19C/66F as we got up but had reached 22C/70F an hour later as the sun beat through the conservatory glass.

Last night, it felt a bit on the edge in the evening so the heating went on. After less than an hour, the house was suffocatingly hot and we had to turn it off. This is one of the benefits of a new, up to date house. It is incredibly well insulated. It is also well ventilated which ought to be a good thing and, generally, is but we have come up against a problem. We have 5 powered extractor fans- 3 in bathrooms, one in the laundry and one in the Kitchen. They are vented through the walls. We are finding that venting pipe in the attic is suffering blow back in very strong winds.

It is making a noisy, creaking sound over our bed which is really annoying. With only 5 months left on our building warranty, we need to get it sorted quickly. This morning, we have had to supply the ‘snagging’ team with photographs prior to their visit. It looks like the lockdown won’t affect them nor will it prevent our landscapers coming next week which is pleasing.

We drove in to Rustington, an attractive but rather sedate village/town with a largely older, conservative demographic. The hint of frost over night had triggered the municipal gardeners to start the process of stripping the Summer flower beds of Begonias. Rustington is proud of its status as an award winner of European Villages in Bloom.

Actually, we had gone there for the excellent Butcher’s Shop. We wanted to buy Rabbit to make a terrine for Xmas Lunch. We will return tomorrow to pick it up. Apparently, someone has to go out shooting this afternoon. 

Certainly, we are very lucky to have so many delightful facilities within easy reach. Nothing is further than 10 -15 mins away. It makes lockdown so much easier to bear.

Thursday, 5th November, 2020

Beautiful morning with gorgeous, backlit sky rising as we rose at 6.00 am.. As we drove to Tesco, the car reported a temperature of just 4C/39F. It had been a very clear sky over night with a bright moon and such strong stars. Pauline went in to shop and I set off in shorts and tee-shirt to do my walk. I soon generated enough heat to shrug off the cold although I was shocked to find myself walking through quite severe frost pockets on my route. Pauline reported a very quiet but fully stocked supermarket.

We drove home on unusually quiet roads to unpack at home and have coffee. I’ve been trying to find out what stage our legal team is at in claiming our Tenerife villa rental back through their Spanish legal arm. It’s been 7 weeks since we set them on that task and we should have some idea of progress. Of course, the latest lockdown will hamper it but can’t let them settle too much.

Later, we drove over to the Rustington Butcher to collect our rabbit and then on to Goring Beach because it is such a wonderful day.

It was absolutely delightful as our eyes drank in the strong sunlight, our nostrils feasted on the smell of the sea and our ears relaxed to the lapping waves. The strong colours of pebbles, sea and sky graduated by white beach huts all combine to provide an atmosphere of well being.

Friday, 6th November, 2020

Lovely morning with sunshine and blue sky and not too cold. We were expecting a cloudy day so this is a bonus. Didn’t hear or see a single firework last night. Sign of the times. We received our 4th negative Covid test result this morning for which we have received £200.00/€222.00. My octogenarian neighbour across the road plays golf on Monday and Friday. They are the only days he gets his Mercedes open top out at 7.00 in the morning to drive down to the seaside links to meet his friends. Because of the lockdown and closure of golf courses, he went Monday and Wednesday this week. He said they struggled to get into the carpark and struggled even more to get on one of the two full courses.

Even though the groundworkers come next week, I have mowed the lawns this morning. Some swathes of it will disappear in a few days but you have to keep up standards. Six years ago today, we first identified the plot for our still-to-be-built new house in Angmering. November has recently become a traditional month in Tenerife. Five years ago, we were spending four weeks in this room in Los Gigantes, south west Tenerife.

We would love to be there or somewhere near this week but it is not to be. Thank goodness we are fortunate enough to have some beautiful surroundings to fall back on. This week, we have been majoring on walks on the beach to soften the blow. 

Today we went down to the Littlehampton Marina and to walk on the beach. Although it wasn’t cold, there was a breeze which reduced the temperature and whipped up the sea into a froth.

The promenade was as quiet as we’ve seen it and that must because of the pandemic lockdown but we would still rather have a steady 25C/77F to oil our joints.

Drove home to do an hour in the gym before we eat our meal and settle down for the evening.

Saturday, 7th November, 2020

Got up without a plan for the day. I hate that. I spoke to Pauline to tell her I felt aimless and, therefore, listless. I was surprised to find she felt exactly the same way. On the list for today is a quip trip to the Pharmacy to collect a prescription, having my haircut, tidying up the last bits of the garden in readiness for the developers coming in on Tuesday, watching football. Hard to get too excited. Life seems to be in stasis.

Eleven years ago, we were preparing to put our Yorkshire house up for sale. I was recording scenes for the memory banks.

We were busy de-cluttering, repainting, clearing the front garden and generally giving it instant curb-appeal. It took another 6 months to sell and it was 10 years ago that we moved in to a temporarily rented, 2 bedroom apartment a bit further up the road.

A year later and after 6 months in Greece, we were moving in to our Duplex Apartment in Surrey and unpacking stuff that had been in storage for the best part of 12 months.

Five years later, we were settling in to our Sussex home and accustoming ourselves to all the facilities of the area. By April 2021, we will be celebrating 5 years here but champing at the bit to go travelling. This stasis is engendering lethargy and that can be deadly.

Sunday, 25th October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 12.

Warm, grey, intermittently wet. This is going to be an ‘in’ day. Apart from increasingly anodyne political programmes and increasingly acerbic newspapers, I have to interface with the real world. Today, I am checking my records for how long it has been since our legal firm started a claim for €4,500.00 from the villa owner in Tenerife who wasn’t able to provide the service we had paid for. Actually, it turns out to be less than a month. I will give them another fortnight before I apply pressure.

Today for Lunch we ate Artichokes & Peas – something we loved in Greece. It is simple, healthy and delicious.

In reality, if we were eating out in Sifnos this morning, we would have been offered Revithia or Chickpea Soup. The traditional dish of Sunday (Κυριακή).

Both are delightful but they emphasise the impoverished simplicity of island subsistence. Of course, it is easy to make a benefit of that rusticity but choice is what matters. We have the freedom to choose one over the other.

This afternoon on Faceache, up popped John Fidler – our old Head of History. Haven’t seen him for at least 15 years. His wife died a year ago. He is looking well.

Monday, 26th October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 13.

Beautiful morning with clear, blue sky and strong sunshine. Quite mild as well although only reading 12C/54F. We have to break out of Quarantine for a few moments again this morning to collect some new, INR test strips from the Pharmacy in the village. They are expensive – 24 test strips cost circa £90.00/€99.50 although a little less without VAT which I don’t have to pay. I use 2 packs a year and get one on prescription and the other I fund myself because I test more often than many to keep on top of my condition.

Had an email from my skinny sister last night. Now most of my sisters are skinny but this one is really skinny – so skinny that God threads her through the eye of a needle. Anyway, enough of abuse. She is a lovely girl and she was a Biology teacher so I turned to her a couple of weeks ago to help me identify this tree that I had spotted growing in a village garden.

Of course, there’s a lot to be said for being skinny. Last night, JaneBG emailed me to say she had identified this plant from a website she knew. Clerodendrum Trichotomum, the Harlequin Glorybower, Glorytree or Peanut Butter Tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. Clerodendrum is derived from Greek, and means ‘chance tree’. Trichotomum is also derived from Greek, and means ‘three-forked’ or ‘triple-branched’. It is native to China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India, and the Philippines. It is a large, deciduous shrub, growing 3–6 metres (10–20 ft) high with fragrant flowers. I want one!

Tuesday, 27th October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 14.

Last day of Quarantine. Must book another trip to France! Feels weird now but we have ‘hardly’ left our house for 2 weeks. We filled up our car before we set off to Folkestone and the tunnel to France and still have a 200 mile/322 km range left in our tank. It will be nice to do a reasonably long drive again soon.

Talking about long drives, a man called Peter has driven all the way from Kent this morning, getting lost on our High Street, to assemble our Treadmill which has been sitting in huge boxes in the gym for a couple of weeks. His drive will have been at least 90 mins and the job will take him a couple of hours. The cost is built in to our purchase price but, if we had needed to purchase it separately, the charge would only have been £120.00/€133.00.

So often I am shocked by what turns up from almost nowhere. Even Faceache produces skeletons from the most unlikely ground. This morning it was this, old man. I haven’t seen him for 6 years and yet once I trusted him with my life and my money. He appeared this morning on a video which featured his nephew, Γεώργιος, the Captain’s Bar owner, Λευτέρης, along with the potter, Αδώνης.

This old man is Σταυρός and the video clip showed all the best and worst of Greek island life in one, fleeting moment. Σταυρός was never collegiate, never easily friendly. It is one of the reasons we appealed to each other. Ironically, he has lived all his life in the goldfish bowl that is island society where interpersonal relationships are at a premium.

The clip illustrated all the faux bon homie that oils the cogs of this intense sphere. The potter played out the pretence of being a magician with that most lavish of props – a small bottle of water. The magician ‘conned’ the younger man – Γεώργιος – into staring closely into the bottle of water which was ‘surprisingly’ squeezed so a fountain showered his face. Cue uncontrollable laughter. Γεώργιος is not stupid and will have known this was about to happen but he played along to provide the crowd with the excuse to laugh. However, playing the fool is not in Σταυρός repertoire nor is heartfelt bon homie. He affects a superficial smiling acknowledgement while withholding genuine friendship. Looking straight ahead, he tries to retain his separation. We took too long to learn this technique.

We have now had 3 Covid-19 tests each. This morning the results of the second test – 12 days ago – arrived. Both were negative. Only another 13 tests to go. On Friday, Pauline will pay our Tesco bill with vouchers for £150.00/€166.00 from the first two tests. At this rate, they can go on testing me in perpetuity.

Wednesday, 28th October, 2020

Life after Quarantine – DAY 1. Beautiful nearly full moon last night and lovely bright sunny morning today but still not cold. Our figs and our Mediterranean tree are still enjoying life to the full. Our first job this morning was to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!

Actually, we have so much cardboard and polystyrene stored from yesterday’s construction of our new treadmill that it will take two trips to the Local Authority tip to be disposed of. Ours was closed today so we had to drive a few miles down the coast to another. As we arrived, it started to rain quite heavily so I told Pauline I would empty the car because she would be shopping afterwards and I didn’t want her to get soaked. As I hurry to carry huge sheets of cardboard that obscure the path, my foot hits a slippery curb and I find myself flat on my face on the tarmac.

There is no fool like an old fool as I was able to demonstrate. As I picked myself up, I found I had scraped my elbow, my hand and my chin. The damage was superficial although, when you are as body-beautiful as me, even the slightest graze is significant. I will need comforting for quite a few days.

We drove on to Sainsburys to do some shopping for the first time in two weeks. Pauline shopped but I went off for a walk as I used to. The weather is typically Autumnal. The rain had only lasted a couple of minutes and a weak sun had reappeared. The damp streets and pavements are beginning to be lightly peppered with leaves and the trees are starting to turn from the green of summer. Certainly taking two weeks off has emphasised the changes on my resumed walking programme.

We weren’t forced to remain at home. We chose to do it and broke out, ‘slightly’ for a few minutes on a couple of occasions. Just imagine what a prisoner, who has been incarcerated for years, feels on final release. I can understand how it can be quite challenging. We were tempted to cavort in Sainsburys underground carpark with a gay abandon we felt so free. Something counselled us not to but we’ve always been boring like that.

Thursday, 29th October, 2020

We won’t be returning to France before the end of the year by the looks of it. France are in a condition of much tighter restrictions now as is Germany. Almost certainly, the UK government will have to move towards more national controls in the next month. We are pleased we squeezed in our trip a fortnight ago and we also feel justified in cancelling our gym membership and starting the testing programme. We had our 4th test this morning. We were visited by an ex-B.A. Cabin Crew. She was a lovely girl who had been made redundant and wanted to keep active.

Pauline and I met her at the door wearing out face visors. I nearly couldn’t persuade Pauline to wear hers at all because it came with a blue headband reading Face Shield. She decided she had to pick the blue strip off before she could wear it. It took her hours but, ultimately, she could bring herself to use it. She would have changed her socks if they had clashed with her visor!

When our visitor arrived, it was raining and she didn’t want to intrude inside our house. We were already prepared for that and had our visors on. She was pleased to be invited in and that we had thought about safety. She said very few people consider it even when they know she is coming. It all took about mins and we have another 12 tests over the next 11 months.

We now know that epidemiologists are forecasting that the infection/death rate from this virus could stay high right through to March/April next year so we certainly have to take it seriously. It will definitely alter conceptions of foreign travel for a long time to come. I believe Europeans currently reliant on Tourism for their economy will have to look for alternatives for a number of years to come.

Due to the measures for the coronavirus in Sifnos and all over Greece, no big festive events and parade were held for the anniversary of October 28th which celebrates Ochi Day – the day in 1940 when Greek Prime Minister, Ioannis Metaxas, refused the ultimatum made by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini demanding access to his country for the occupying forces. Not only did the weather not play ball but parades were banned and the whole thing was reduced to a gaggle of island representatives in the square.

Friday, 30th October, 2020

Supposed to be a dry day today  which is why we switched our shopping from Thursday. I dropped Pauline at the door of Tesco Superstore at 7.00 am just as light rain began to fall. I parked up and set off for my walk but hadn’t gone more than 200mtrs when my phone buzzed with a text message to say that I would be receiving a DPD delivery of an item for the gym at 8.00 am. I phoned Pauline and she re-emerged with only one bag of shopping so we could meet the deadline. 

Coffee and parcel received and we were back off to Tesco for the rest of the shopping. Pauline says shelves were poorly stocked and restrictions had been re-imposed on some items like flour which bore echoes of the national lockdown. We live in a very low infection area but we are told that it is increasing and customers are obviously fearing the worst. Paying the bill of £120.00/€134.00 (including 3 sides of Scottish salmon) cost us only £20.00/€22.50 actually because the rest was cancelled by the first of our Covid test vouchers. We have £50.00/€67.00 more already and, before we shop next week, we will have another £50.00/€67.00. It’s a great, part time job.

Back home to unpack and more coffee. I still have lots of waste packaging from gym items to dispose of. I also need to get rid of some huge, old wine racks. I thought of offering them to skinny Liz but she swears she’s teetotal. Actually, I thinks she swears a lot about many things but that’s another matter. So, with the car packed of cardboard, polystyrene and wine racks, we set off for the local Tip. It doesn’t seem to matter when you go, it is always busy. The roads were incredibly busy but it is always nice to arrive home and think, All that rubbish has gone. The lightness of being rubbish-free is wonderful.

We managed to slip a quick trip to Sainsburys in to the drive home for things unavailable in Tesco. We have been in our home for 4 years 8 months. We have a 5 year everything covered warranty. We haven’t had to ask for much to be attended to. Others have had new windows and roofs, etc.. Today, we asked for two sink pop-ups to be replaced because they are sticking. The cost must be less than £20.00. We are scanning round to look for things that could be replaced but can’t find them. Even all the white goods are working well. By April, 2021, we will be on our own. Save Us! We’ll have to send for Skinny Lizzie and Help the Aged!

Saturday, 31st October, 2020

The end of October already and another National Lockdown mooted. We are in danger of seeing our lives peter out not with a bang but with a whimper. I’m sure many of you will be aware that is a quotation from T.S.Eliot’s 1925 poem, The Hollow Men which he finishes with:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper. 

‘The Hollow Men’ – T.S.Eliot, 1925

I am not against the Lock Down. In fact, I believe it should have been instituted over Half Term with at least a week either side as well. Because it wasn’t, the general consensus seems to be that many more people will die and the inevitable Lock Down will have to be longer.

However, once again we will feel increasingly isolated and detached from the real world. We will feel restricted and unenriched by travel and new experiences. We will be looking for vicarious substitutes to replace the real. Our communications will be increasingly important again. The Radio, Television and Internet will provide the boundaries to our world.

I don’t know about you but I am struggling with password overload. I have around 10 that I use on a regular basis and I can hold all of them in my memory bank. In fact, I don’t even pause to recall They come to me instantly. I have something around 50 different sites and passwords that I need in a year and I would really struggle to retain all of them. I use Norton 36 Premium which has a number of useful tools in addition to internet security. One of them is the Password Manager or Vault. This is working all the time in the background and recognises sites and fills in the password when required. It is a wonderful idea. It also supplies me with cloud storage and a secure VPN – Virtual Private Network – for privacy whilst browsing. I find it really user-friendly ad a must have.

High tide in Littlehampton at 11.00 this morning. We drove down to see the huge waves crashing on the beach. Unfortunately, we got there to find torrential fine rain and a mist which reduced visibility to around 100ms.. We did a swift drive past and came home to a quiet, dry kitchen.

By 2.00 pm, the skies had cleared and the sun was out. We drove back down to the beach for a quick blow in the sunshine. It was absolutely delightful.

Sunday, 18th October, 2020

Ten years ago today, Pauline and I were camping out in the hairdressing salon of a sheltered housing property for elderly people. Pauline’s Mum had not been well, had been in and out of hospital and we had driven back from Greece early to be with her. Last week in 2010, she went to hospital for what we know now was the last time. In great pain and at the age of 96, she underwent an emergency operation to remove a gangrenous growth from the intestines. It was a huge risk at her age but there was no choice. The operation went well and we left her sleeping for the night, returned to her Anchor Sheltered Housing home and celebrated with a bottle of wine.

Early the next morning, the telephone rang and we knew before even answering it. She had gone. On the 18th October, 2010, she had gone. Every year, we have returned to the Crematorium in Oldham to remember and acknowledge her contribution to our life. This year, for the first and we hope the last time, we do that silently in our thoughts.

QUARANTINE – DAY 5.

Autumnal chill in the air this morning. It’s not enough to change into wearing clothes and it is forecast to get warmer again this week but my legs and arms felt it as I worked outside this morning. I have spent an hour or so pressure washing the patio flags in preparation for it being extended in a couple of weeks time.

Many people have increased their hard standing outside since we moved in but few have used the existing flags. The young ones have seen it as a way to demonstrate their ‘taste’, individuality and affluence as they choose polished, white marble or multi-coloured, geometric styles. They have developed their gardens with olive trees and banana plants, with exotic flowers and synthetic grass. In contrast, we have been through that in multiple locations in the past and we are happy to retain the economy paving that our builder laid down initially. It is non-slip, quick draining, reasonably attractive (to our eyes) and relatively cheap. We are well past impressing the neighbours.

Monday, 19th October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 6.

Amazing how time flies when your enjoying yourself in quarantine. Almost half way through already. Actually, today is such a wonderfully sunny and warm one that we would have liked to have walked on the beach but we are honest, upstanding citizens so we didn’t.

I’ve got a bad back this morning. A few days ago, I lifted some massive, clay pots planted up with geraniums which needed to be emptied out for the end of year tidy up. As soon as I did it, I had a feeling I might regret it later. No real problem for two days  and then, last night, I woke at 3.00 am in agony. I couldn’t move off my side and, when I did, I couldn’t move back again. This morning, I had to be rolled out of bed by my wife who makes a wonderful nurse. She prescribed using the Cross-Trainer for freeing up the spasms in my back. It worked until I sat down and seized up again. She says the moral is: Never sit down. Who can live their life standing up all the time?

Actually, I did a full workout in the gym and felt good after it. I walked out in to the garden saw something huge under the hedge, bent down to pick it and couldn’t straighten up.

It was a huge and beautiful mushroom the spores for which could have been seeded in the bark mulch we had put down. Inside, it was a delicious, pure white. I would loved to have cooked and eaten it but fear stopped me.

It brought back memories of Grandad Coghlan retiring down in the East Midlands countryside from a life in the city of London. He obviously had a pastoral dream of enjoying the fruits of the fields and enlisted some young kids – Me, Bob & Jane – to get up at 5.00 am to walk across the nearest dew-bespangled meadow with a wooden trug picking the abundance of mushrooms. It didn’t quite go to plan. Mushrooms were very hard to find. Grandad was attracted by the red ones and, quite sensibly, Mum wouldn’t let us eat any of them when we got home for fear of us dying.

We are expecting our first ever, Sainsburys Home Delivery this afternoon. We had to pay £3.00/€3.31 for it which I consider scandalous but quarantine demands it.

Tuesday, 20th October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 7.

Delicious morning with blue sky and warm sunshine at 17C/63F. Really pleasant for mid-October which is just as well because I had a terrible night. I was in agony for hours with back pain and, even if I found a comfortable position, just breathing was agony. I clearly managed some sleep but it wasn’t good quality.

We are due for our third Covid-19 test on Thursday. The result for my first one from 12 days ago arrived by post this morning. It was supposed to come by text message/email. How many people could I have infected over 12 days if it had been positive?

This really does seem to be one of the problems. Our swabs went to one of the Lighthouse Labs which are just not able to turn them round in time to be effective. Until that Test-Track-Trace works efficiently, nothing but a National Lock Down will improve the situation.

In spite of my back, I’ve still managed to do a full gym session. For half an hour afterwards, everything feels fine but then it seizes up so I have to walk around constantly. How do I read?

Wednesday, 21st October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 8.

Had a much better night although my back is still a bit of a pain. It’s amazing how disability in one area has such a debilitating effect on so many others. Walking, lifting, sitting, standing, turning, lying down are all compromised by a painful back. However, I am determined to work through it as far as I can. I have done 90 mins in the gym this morning and the back really feels looser after that.

I read a lot and listen to music a lot. Today featured Mozart Violin Concertos – Arthur Grumiaux and the London Philarmonic. I must have had this recording more that 30 years. It is always emotional and sometimes painful (for me) revisiting old friends. While I listened in the Office, I read some of my favourite Greek Blogs and Websites.

Today on apikou.gr-sifnos-cyclades I found some old acquaintances. I first met them 35 years ago although the photo of Nikos Kalogirou and his daughter, Moshka, was taken about 55 years ago. This photo will have been taken in Kamares around 1960-65 just at the time that the island was first acquiring mains electricity. How time moves on. It’s certainly moving on for us as we begin our second week of Quarantine today and our third Covid-19 test tomorrow.

Thursday, 22nd October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 9.

A chill in the air this morning although it is 15C/59F. It was a clear night of stars so I expected it to be colder. Eleven years ago this morning, we became mortgage-free. By 10.00 am we had paid off our mortgage and five accompanying Mortgage Insurance policies. We had retired 6 months earlier, set off for our Greek home. Our mortgage was large – taking the whole of one of our incomes – because we were financing two houses. We had re-mortgaged a number of times to raise the ever increasing demand for building funds. Our final mortgage was with Northern Rock.

It took the Lump Sum from one of our Teachers’ Pensions but it felt weirdly wonderful. It meant that, in retirement, we felt incredibly comfortable with our income which had doubled over night. Almost exactly a year later, Northern Rock Bank collapsed leaving streams of worried depositors queueing at their doors desperate to reclaim their savings.

How many Christmas cards have you received so far? We got our first one yesterday along with a present from a Blog reader. A few weeks ago, I wrote about my pride in finally, successfully using a power drill/screwdriver to build some wine racks.

It’s possible that I overstated my competence because the Christmas card was accompanied by an early present – a Drill Holster. I might look the part wearing it but I assure you I would look the wrong part. I have considered that it could be useful for carrying the television remote control around so, thank you.

Friday, 22nd October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 10.

Friday and day 10 of quarantine and we had to break out. We are out of bananas. Who can live without bananas? Exactly. We made a 5 mins drive to Asda – the home of top bananas. Pauline nipped in and out alone. It felt great to be outside and ‘free’. Sad isn’t it?

Even more ‘sad’ than that was how I spent my morning exploring the new television we had installed in the lounge about a month ago. Life has been interestingly busy and I hadn’t got round to it before now. When you see what I did, you will realise why I wasn’t in a hurry for this experience.

Firstly, this Samsung TV advertises itself as remaining ‘on’ but invisibly so when not in use. It does this by ostensibly adopting the colour of its background. I had to take a photo of the TV and the wall behind it and send this photo to the TV which takes the background colour/tone and adopts it for its screen. Having tried it, I’m not sure what this really achieves and I won’t be using it again but I had to try it.

I had to download an app called Samsung SmartThings which allowed me to Bluetooth the screens of my phone and iPad straight to my TV screen. I had done that before on other TVs but I hoped this might be a more enjoyable, useful experience. It wasn’t and I won’t be doing that again for a while. Really, the whole process has been superseded by the broadband link into our TVs. Everything we can do on other things like phones and pads can be done over the net directly on TVs.

Just down the road from us, a large, new, private Care Home is being built in the grounds of a huge old house. It is close enough for us to walk to it in under 10 mins. Probably the true test is that we don’t need it if we can still walk to it in 10 mins.

However, it is good to know that preparations are being planned for our later years. We like it around here and hope to remain even in our dotage.

Saturday, 23rd October, 2020

QUARANTINE – DAY 11.

Quite a grey start to the day and only 13C/56F. I have to admit, I am feeling a little stir-crazy today. I think we may nip out for an hour in the car just to see a different backdrop to our world.

I say different. It is still fairly grey. The Funfair on Littlehampton Marina Parade is open for youngsters this half term but it might as well not be. I didn’t see a single person there at 1100 am. Mind you, the water flume wouldn’t have drawn me in at any age.

We only did a brief walk to allow the sea air to blow across our minds. There were people on the beach but it was not sunbathing weather.

Back home for hot coffee and the warmth of our insulated house. We’ve got the final piece of our gym to be installed on Tuesday – the treadmill will make a big difference. Already, our attitude to exercise is more relaxed in that we can do it when we want rather when we can fit in a drive to David Lloyd. Instead of watching football in a semi-prone position, today I cycled as I shouted at the television. Even Saint Marcus has been better off the pitch than on in the past few days.