Sanders Blog

Sunday, 31st March, 2019

A quiet day of sunshine but cool temperatures. All around us, neighbours were celebrating that commercially manufactured Mothers’ Day. We have no mothers so didn’t bother. To mark the start of British Summer Time, we broke the habits of a long time by eating red meat. It must be almost 12 months since we last did it. Today, we shared a roast leg of lamb. It was lovely and tasty but overwhelmingly fatty. We enjoyed the experience but won’t do it again in a hurry. Back to fish tomorrow.

We didn’t go to the Health Club either today which left me champing at the bit. No doubt, my legs will feel better tomorrow when we go. It is going to be another tumultuous political week although we will be away for most of it. We’ve chosen to go to Yorkshire just as snow is forecast. Looks like I will have to leave my customary shorts at home.

On this day 10 years ago, we had finally made the decision that we would accept a redundancy package and leave teaching forever. We were in some trepidation about our futures. We were uncertain about our financial security. We were just 3 days away from finishing and would never have believed how well it would work out for us. Finishing teaching was the best thing we ever did as I will expand on as the week unfolds.

Monday, 1st April, 2019

Happy April 2019. It is All Fools Day as few fools will be aware. Aside from picking spaghetti from our pasta tree, the fools who would be Tory politicians  will be centre stage today. The quest for Brexit (or not in my case) goes on this week. Actually, this morning has started with clear, blue sky and lovely, strong sunshine. It represents about the nearest clarity we can expect today.

Brexit is destroying our lives. We have even put off booking travel abroad because of it and I know many others have done the same. We wanted to drive down through France to Murcia in Spain to rent a villa for the month of July. I’ve even found a lovely one which would do fine. It has all our requirements – a heated pool, wi-fi, satellite television, kitchen, washing machine, iron+board. As usual, it is far too big with 3 bedrooms but it is standard fair. For the month of July it would only cost us £3,686.28/€4,300.00 which is a fantastic price.

We have a second problem which is causing us to rethink. We ordered our new car but have to wait  ….. until the start of July to have it delivered. Not only could the price go up by 10% if we have a ‘No-Deal’ Brexit but it blocks our attempts to commit to any dates. It might arrive at the end of June or be delayed into the middle of July. We want to drive there and we have fixed a trade-in of our current car based on a predicted mileage which would preclude an extra 3000 miles for a round trip to Spain.

It will be nice to do it in a new car so may have to be put off until next year. Nothing will prevent us returning to Athens in the Autumn nor spending a month in the Canary sun in November. The month in Spain would have cost somewhere around £7,000.00/€8,150.00 so we will bank that and use it to good effect next year.

Tuesday, 2nd April, 2019

Shortly after 9.00 am with rain spitting in the grey sky and a temperature of just 9C/48F, we drove off in the direction of Yorkshire. The journey – A24, M25, M1 – takes just under 5 hours. Traffic was delightfully easy, even the M25, but the weather was a different matter. Spitting rain gave way to torrential rain and standing water on the motorway with all the heavy goods vehicles creating spray blinding vision.

We had one stop at Toddington Services for a cup of coffee and a wee as we joined the M1. By that time, the sun was out but it was still fairly chilly and, as soon as we set off again, the rain came down again. Intermittent rain and sunshine with the temperature yo-yoing between 7C/45F and 3C/37F and back and a bout of wet snow as we drove through Derbyshire.

We arrived in Huddersfield by 2.00 pm and filled up with petrol. £43.00/€53.36 that journey cost us. Fascinating to find Unleaded costing £1.27/€1.49 up here when it is £1.14/€1.34 at home in Sussex. Then we drove up to our hotel in Brighouse arriving in beautiful sunshine. The receptionist told me she went to Rastrick High School where the Headteacher was a friend and former colleague of ours.

We went to our Suite of rooms on the top floor and had a cup of coffee while we unpacked and watched Sky News to catch up on the Brexit developments from the Cabinet meeting. It consisted of a presenter and a reporter standing outside No10, looking at the comings and goings and talking about the cats in the street. We opened a bottle of Rioja and ate cold garlic chicken with tomato salad. Man.Utd. playing tonight.

Wednesday, 3rd April, 2019

A cooked breakfast – the only time we ever even contemplate it is in a hotel. We had one this morning before coffee in our suite and then driving off to Royton in Lancashire to meet our old friend, Brian and his wife, Val, for a catch up. It was fantastic and they will come down to visit us in the Summer.

We moved on to revisit old haunts in Oldham and then Huddersfield as the weather cycled between Winter, Spring, Summer and back again. It is exactly 10 years since we left our school for the last time after nearly 40 years of work. At the time, we had no idea how life would treat us and were in some trepidation.

Equally, we knew our school was finished and that, after 60 years, it would be bulldozed for other purposes but, further than that, we knew no more.

Life has treated us so much better than we expected and our school’s site has been sold to the House Building company, Redrow. Actually, standing there this morning, felt strange and rather out-of-body. New houses were going up at exactly the place where the two, caretakers’ houses once stood. Jack and Phil have been dead for some time. Now their physical existence has been totally expunged – the houses as well as Jack and Phil. The entrance to the main building is now the entrance to a building site upon which many, ‘Executive’ houses will be built right down the ski slope to Ripponden Road.

Actually, 10 years has almost completely anaesthetised the memories and we rapidly move on. Driving across the moors over the A640, Nont Sarah’s road to Huddersfield, we drop in on our old residence of Salendine/Longwood. Down in to Huddersfield town and a cup of tea in Sainsbury’s cafe and then back to our hotel to download and watch PMQs and drink a glass of wine. Tomorrow, we are meeting friends in Holmfirth for Lunch at a restaurant sited in an old, converted ‘Carding Shed’. Looking forward to seeing them again.

Thursday, 4th April, 2019

A relaxed morning of Breakfast and reading the papers. A little grey start to the day but it brightened up and we left around 10.30 am heading towards Holmfirth. We went through Huddersfield town centre going past the great, University buildings and on to Lockwood, Netherton and Meltham. It is strange how, returning to such familiar surroundings forces one to concentrate and resist the natural temptation to take the route for granted. We left here in 2011 and we spent this morning exclaiming, “They’re still going. They’re still here.”

Eventually, we drove through a rapidly changing Meltham village and climbed towards Holmfirth. We were meeting old friends, Margaret and Little Viv. Margaret is charged with finding a new and innovative venue every time we meet. Today, it was redeveloped woollen mill buildings on the outskirts of Holmfirth.

It was the former ‘Carding Mill’ that we were going to which housed a vintage vehicle repair garage and sales area.

There was a clothes shop where Pauline did some unsuccessful (thank goodness) shopping and a restaurant where we met up with our friends. We shared a sea-food platter and a Caesar Salad with fizzy water. Pauline went for it with cake & cream for pudding. I didn’t. It was a lovely time although we did reprise all the deaths in the past 6 months – John Gillespie, Marjorie Pogson, John Ownsworth, Harry Taylor, Pat Wild – and we pledged to meet again in October if Viv & Margaret can’t make it down to Sussex before that.

Friday, 5th April, 2019

Up early on a beautiful morning. Wonderful breakfast although we are pledged to not have hotel breakfasts ever again after this. We just eat too much. Coffee, packing and down to the car in lovely, warm sunshine.

The grounds really inform the enjoyment of this hotel. Rabbits and squirrels scuttling around under the blossom add to the delight. The M62 motorway is only 700 yds away but doesn’t intrude. It has been a lovely stay and we really enjoyed it but now we must make our way back.

M62, M1, M25, A24 are the roads we take from West Yorkshire to West Sussex on a drive of 260 miles. The drive was really easy and enjoyable. Now that the M1 has been completed in its transmogrification into smart motorway, there are no holdups and it is actually much quieter. We left Brighouse at 9.25 am and, even with a coffee stop, arrived home by 2.30 pm.

Saturday, 6th April, 2019

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birth…. well never mind. Who can really celebrate being 68? At least news on the Brexit front was improving this morning as negotiations run in to the sand and a ‘long extension’ is mooted. Lord Adonis and I have already agreed that around 500 years would be reasonable and then renegotiate.

Out this morning to Asda, Sainsburys and Tesco. Then we drove down to the fisherman’s hut at Littlehampton Marina and bought some Hake steaks cut from fish caught around Brighton. Apparently, Hake is, surprisingly, not so popular in the UK where much hake is caught but generally exported to Spain, Portugal and Italy where it is highly favoured. If we Brexit, that could be a problem for the generally Leave-voting fishermen who desert their primary markets.

We also bought two, large, locally-caught sea bass which will be simply accompanied by Samphire for my birthday meal this evening. Finally, we bought a large joint of Tuna which will cut up into six, thick steaks for griddling.

It is a real bonus to be able to easily source fresh, locally-caught fish. While we lived in Huddersfield, our one, good fresh fish stall closed and left us without. In Surrey, we really had to rely on supermarkets and the occasional foray into the outdoor market. Here, we can buy fresh fish every day of the week depending on weather. We were told today that most of the fish was caught within a few miles of where we were and that, although locally caught crabs had been available all year round, he was short at the moment because the boats had been struggling with strong winds. I love fresh crab.

Sunday, 24th March, 2019

Talk about Spring. Feels as if Summer has sprung today. No Gym today so spent the day in the back garden in warm (almost hot) sunshine. delicious!

We unpacked the new furniture and enjoyed a relaxing time. Nice to find that the wireless net reaches out to the garden so we could follow twitter outside.

Nice to see the will of the British People is still speaking loud and clear while the Tory government is still floundering and falling apart. Fascinating week ahead.

Monday, 25th March, 2019

Gorgeous, gorgeous day. It was a bit unusual for us because we had the ‘snaggers’ in to retile the floor of an en suite bathroom. For that reason, we were up a little earlier and it was a good job we were. At 8.00 am, we received a phone call from someone who we had not seen for two or three years. It was an ex-colleague who was telling us of the death of his wife who was also a former, professional colleague.

I’m afraid I don’t have a photo to commemorate her here but Pat Wild, who was the matchmaker between my wife & I more than 40 years ago, has died of bowel cancer. She had fought it off twice before but finally succumbed last night. She had taught in the Arts & Technology building of our school and delivered courses in Fabrics & Weaving for many years. Her husband, Derek, who phoned us, had been Head of Chemistry for equally many years. They have lived in Uppermill, Saddleworth for 47 years.

These events are immediately evocative of life past. Hearing of Pat this morning and we are back in those buildings, those offices, those corridors – places Pat had not graced for 20 years and we have not seen for a decade. Pat’s death is a symbol of the passing of the lives of all who met in that place.

Because the builders were in and will be for three days, I had to go to the gym on my own. Pauline was making endless cups of tea for plumbers and tilers. She also took the chance to bake loaves of bread and make her favourite ginger biscuits. I have been captivated by the Prime ministerial statement concerning her total failure to cobble together support for her ‘deal’. The best way forward is to revoke Article 50 and the petition is already over 5.5 million signatures and increasing by almost 300 per minute. Ultimately, the Commons must take notice.

Today in Greece they celebrate Independence Day under the shelter of the European Union. Britain should remember that. The Greeks certainly don’t want to leave the EU but they are proud to be independent. The two are not incompatible. They blend beautifully like Bakaliaros, Skordalia & Banzari – salt cod (hake), garlic sauce & beetroot which are traditional fare on this day.

Tuesday, 26th March, 2019

Another beautiful morning and we have the tilers in for the second of three days of ‘snagging’. I’ve written how lucky we are to have a 5-year warranty because we are now just into year 4. Our next door neighbours signed for their property a few weeks after us and only received a 3-year warranty because our builders had downgraded their offer in that time. Incredibly unfair to them but fortunate for us.

Wednesday, 27th March, 2019

The tiler and plumber came back for a couple of hours this morning to replace the sink and toilet and grout around them. Two, lovely, hardworking and gentle men. Polite, dedicated and delightful, they have highly sympathetic and pleasant. We have found so many skilled men of genuine kindness in the process of purchasing and configuring our home. It is constantly uplifting to meet them.

The workmen finished and left by mid-day which freed us to go to the health Club together. I was doing the 12th routine in the past 14 days but felt good and really enjoyed it. The swimming at the end was just wonderful. The water was warm as was the air temperature at 16C/61F even though we had no sun by afternoon.

Couldn’t wait for parliamentary proceedings as we drove home around 4.00 pm. Today, the House of Commons took control of the order paper and held indicative votes. A second referendum came with 27 votes of being approved and will go forward to the second round on Monday. The Prime minister has offered to resign to buy votes for her ‘deal’ but the DUP have pledged not top support he so it looks as if she’s thrown herself under a bus prematurely and unnecessarily.

Thursday, 28th March, 2019

Sister, Jane, comes of age today with her 65th birthday. Quite unbelievable. To think it is 50 years since we shared a bus together as I got off at the Boys Grammar School and she went on to the Girls High School. We haven’t seen much of each other since then but, now, we are both playing out in retirement. I wish her a very happy birthday.

A warm day and lovely and sunny after a grey start. We did our round of supermarkets for the week’s shopping and then home to do jobs. The back garden was bathed in sunshine and quite delightful. The re-seeded lawn is lush, thick and healthily green. In a secluded, warm spot behind the garage, the fig trees are loving their situation. they are covered in baby figlets ready for the summer harvest. The coming nights are forecast to be cold so we have covered the trees in nets to protect them. We are looking forward to making fig jam again after five years without it.

The potted herbs – Tarragon, Oregano and  Laurel Bay are doing well. I will replace the Thyme, Basil, Dill and Sage in a couple of weeks. We use so herb in our cooking now and so little salt that it is good to have large stocks of frozen, fresh chopped herbs in our freezers.

Another, full Health club exercise routine again today. it is my  19th out of 20 days. The swimming today was quite delightful. Warm sunshine, warm water, tuneful birds singing optimistically all around us.

Friday, 29th March, 2019

Happy Independence Day and what a day! Blue sky, strong sun, warm temperature which reached 20C/68F by mid afternoon. Although we went to the gym to do our exercise routine, the day was dominated by Brexit proceedings in the House of Commons. Our house had the Parliament Channel in Quadrophenia throughout the morning.

Televisions were on in two rooms upstairs as Pauline ironed and put things in the wardrobes and in two rooms downstairs as I moved between the Office and the Kitchen. I have to admit that although I believed, intellectually, that the Government was going to lose, emotionally, I had grave doubts. Something could go seriously wrong. My real concern was that Labour rebels would turn fright at the last minute and back the Withdrawal Agreement.

As the debate continued, we drove to the gym and spent 90 minutes watching the Parliamentary proceedings as we exercised. We finished just as the speeches wound up and the Commons moved to vote. Today we didn’t swim for the first time this week and I went off for 30 mins in the jacuzzi and water massage area. As I shared and changed, I realised that I was thinking about the vote and the result. I was actually quite nervous. I left the changing room to meet Pauline in the Lobby where she had been watching the proceedings on television as she waited for me. She immediately greeted me with thumbs up. The motion had been defeated by 58 votes which was more than I expected and enough to deter the Government from bringing it back. What joy!

It’s going to be a good weekend. Maybe a good few years. Anyway, chicken griddled in the garden with tomato and rocket salad and a bottle of delicious Bordeaux rouge. Life could be a lot worse. I’m raising a glass to the Skiathan.

Saturday, 30th March, 2019

This is the day that leads to BST. It is a beautiful day of warm sunshine. 16C/61F by mid morning. Tomorrow marks the start of British Summer Time although our village is looking incredibly summery already. One minute everything was dead as a dead thing and then everything was a riot of colour. Particularly, now, our village is seeing the last of the daffodils fade, the magnolia blooms still at peak fullness and now the Ribes – Flowering Currant everywhere alight. The crimson of Ribes set in front of the blushed white flowers of magnolia is inspired planting in gardens around here.

Driving around the West Sussex roads, the hedges are vibrant with the white flowers of the inappropriately named Blackthorn hedging which is abundant down here and stands out starkly in the sunshine. Nothing is standing still, however. Trees, hedges are suddenly green without any real warning. The grass is growing lusciously as the frolicking cattle outside with sun on their backs gorge and graze. This is such a time to be alive and feel optimistic. It is a time to be grateful for being alive and feel able to be optimistic.

I cannot sit still any more. I have to be active. This morning, under a strong, warm sun, I spent 2 hours fully valeting the car. Then we went to the Health Club for the 20th day in the last 22. Actually, we will have tomorrow off which will be strange but allow us to adjust to the loss of an hour.

Sunday, 17th March, 2019

So many of our friends are posting pictures of flooding in the North. Here, the weather has finally returned the sun. After a third, consecutive early night, I woke at 4.00 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. By 6.00 am, I was desperate to get up.

After breakfast, we decided it was nice enough for a walk down on the beach. It wasn’t so warm and the sea breeze kept us aware of that but it felt so healthy. We parked at the marina’s edge and walked up the promenade.

A few people were already out with their dogs and one or two couples were sitting on the beach, making sand castles with their toddlers. We walked along the sea’s edge and inhaled the salt & ozone air.

Still did a full Gym & Swim session this afternoon. We had the pool to ourselves although seagulls were squawking overhead. We both felt good as we drove home to cook roast cod loin with prawns and accompanied by cauliflower and Broccoli salad. I’m starving!

Monday, 18th March, 2019

Always looking for things to lower my calorie intake without compromising life too much. For quite a while, I substituted a sparkling grape juice from Asda which costs £1.00/€1.17 and contains circa 150 cals per 750 mls compared with a similar size bottle of wine which packs around 600 cals. The flavour and effect are, admittedly, not equivalent but I can kid myself through it.

I buy it in collections of 10 bottles at a time and keep it in the wine cooler/fridge. I went to Asda today to replenish my stock but was shocked to find the shelves were bare. When we enquired, we were told that it had been discontinued. I felt quite lost, bereft and searching for an alternative. There is Shloer but it is quite disgusting. I had to resort to one of my favourite Riojas instead. Bit of a rude name but a lovely flavour. It cost me £4.99/€5.90 to import but would cost £9.50/€11.15 to buy in UK.

I am increasingly finding myself impressed by Speaker Bercow. I don’t know why but there it is.

Tuesday, 19th March, 2019

Bright but coolish day. The lawns are growing fast and the daffodils are going over as we approach ‘official start of Spring’ tomorrow. UK (Catholic) Easter is just 4 weeks on Sunday and Greek (Orthodox) Easter the week after. Our friends on Sifnos sent us a photo of little piece of us that remains on Sifnos. We gave these things to Elerania, our Notary, when we left and she has maintained them in her garden and office.

It is lovely to feel that contact still remains however tenuous. We look forward to our return this Summer/Autumn. Let’s hope conditions ease and we feel free to commit ourselves to European travel once again.

Wednesday, 20th March, 2019

Well, the first day of Spring has not started well – grey skies and 13C/55F. The window cleaner has been and relieved us of £18.00/€21.00. At least the windows are sparkling. I’ve mowed the lawns which makes the world look a little tidier after treating the broad-leaved weeds that have crept in over the Winter. I did that a few days ago but I still have one or two areas that will need a little reseeding. I still love my cordless mower which is moving into its 4th year and going well. It takes all the hassle out of mowing and I can do everything in around 30 mins.

The only problem is that you have to remember to charge the battery in advance. This morning, I tried it without and the machine died after 5 stripes. Now I’ve got to wait before finishing – a bit like Theresa May!

By weird coincidence, Mum’s family originated in Brighton. She would be surprised to find me living down here now. I must admit, I didn’t realise where her love of Magnolia trees came from. Sussex seems to provide the perfect environment for them to thrive and flourish. In her East Midlands home, she was incredibly proud of a massive (over large) Magnolia tree that dominated the top of her garden. She was always nervous as the buds were about to open because they were very prone to frost damage which was quite common up there. Here, on the South coast, frost is much less a threat. Our village has been illuminated by the most magnificent specimens for around three weeks. As we move into the start of Spring, Magnolias and daffodils are fading already.

Thursday, 21st March, 2019

Recent winds revealed a problem with a stretch of garden fencing which separates our garden from our neighbour’s. The installers are being brought back by our builders to address the two posts which seemed to have not been sited properly. It is another great value of a 5-year warranty on everything. I already have one or two thin patches that need additional re-seeding. Newly dug holes for fence posts will need it now too.

No shopping this morning because the contractor was here but politics was plenty absorbing anyway. As we move into the Brexit endgame, another referendum is rapidly being replaced by the urgent need for revocation of Article 50. Fortuitously, a girl with a Greek name, Margarita Georgiadou, put up a petition on the Government website demanding just that – revocation of Article 50. Within 10 hrs, it had more than 1.5 million signatures and was so popular that it kept on crashing. Quite amazing how these things sometimes arise out of the zeitgeist and take off. We are writing the government’s Plan B.

I am desperately tired tonight. We have just completed the 6th out of 7 days of exercise – 600 mins. When we have completed tomorrow, we will have done 13/14 days or just short of 23 hrs effort. It is no wonder we are beginning to feel it. May have to take Saturday off although it’s looking less likely we will get to the London rally. No coach spaces left. The train service which should be just one journey is already advertised as two trains plus a bus replacement each way and, from our last experience, there is a good chance that we might not get home.

Friday, 22nd March, 2019

Another grey and cool day. We did our weekly shop and then decided NOT to go to the gym. We have been really good recently and feel distinctly tired so a less energetic day was planned. It didn’t quite turn out that way.

The political scene is captivating at the moment. The government is falling apart. The referendum decision is contributing to that disintegration. We know it was a major mistake for the referendum to be called, for a binary decision to be placed, for the national suicide that is Brexit to be chosen and for an incredibly right wing clique to place its own interpretation on that result.

What is more surprising are the people who have gone along with that movement. One person I follow who maintains a Blog, who is a former expat on a Greek island and who has a European partner/wife actually believes that UK should withdraw from Europe with all that entails. To realise that leaves me in despair and wondering what people think Brexit will practically do for them. What is the actual upside? I just cannot get in to that mindset at all. Today, a Revoke Article 50 petition, which was only listed yesterday, reached a record-breaking 3.5 million signatures. Tomorrow, we will see a huge demonstration of national will in favour of a second referendum and Remain in the EU. Anybody with strong links with the EU and a love of Greece should support it.

Saturday, 23rd March, 2019

What a grey day! Spring warmth but not light. We woke up thinking about the People’s March and feeling ashamed that we had not managed to arrange to be there. We followed it on Twitter Live Streaming as the crowds built up to a crescendo of 1,000,000 +. Even the BBC and Sky News were quoting those figures as the day went on. People at the event like my sister, Jane BG, messaged me to say that the numbers were so much greater than the previous march that she thought that, headline figure was probably an underestimate.

While that demonstration of people power played out with members of all political parties speaking out, the Revocation Petition was powering on and is currently standing at 4,630,000 signatures. Any politician who ignores these signs is signing their own demise.

Fighting against our demise, we spent the morning stockpiling against the threat of a No Deal famine – buying staples like toilet paper, washing tablets, tinned pulses, bottled water, etc, supplies of which are threatened by this lunatic suicidal tendency. We then did our 12th exercise session out of the last 14 days. I had cooked Cassoulet for our meal so it was ready when we got home some 3hrs later. Now, we are so tired, it is all we can do to listen to this afternoon’s speeches. They were good, though. Let’s hope the Skiathan was listening.

Sunday, 10th March, 2019

A windy night which left us repositioning the garden furniture this morning. Mild and bright but windy. May not swim today but just do our gym work. Big football match this afternoon.

The big Brexit week to come has been prefaced by a number of pieces of news about Greece.

The first and not immediately Brexit-related came concerning American tourists who form a large part of tourism to Greece. Travelling to Europe will become more complicated for Americans beginning in 2021. The European Union announced Americans will need to obtain a visa known as a European Travel Information and Authorization System, or ETIAS, to travel to 26 nations starting in 2021. Among the nations included are France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The second is for British Expats in Greece. The Head of Greek Customs has made an announcement confirming that, in the case of no-deal, all imports and exports from and to the UK, including 7,000 products imported daily from e-shops, will be subject to the customs checks associated with third country nations. Tariffs will also be imposed. This includes parcels through ELTA and Courier services. Greek businesses will need an EORI number to make declarations.

The third is for tourists. 4,200,000 UK tourists a year will be subject to irritating baggage checks and will be unable to carry more than 10,000 euros cash with them. He says that a no-deal Brexit would cause huge problems. It certainly will if the combined changes persuade the lucrative tourist market to look elsewhere.

Monday, 11th March, 2019

The winds have dropped, temporarily, but they are forecast to be back in the early hours and for the first half of tomorrow. Today is an absolutely lovely day with blue sky and sunshine.

Lovely sunshine on Sifnos yesterday for their annual carnival with the ‘folk’ pageant in Artemonas village. Plenty of people doing ‘silly’ things for the enjoyment of the crowds. Today is a  Bank Holiday for Καθαρά Δευτέρα or ‘Clean Monday’ – the start of Lent. Fasting starts today and traditionally no meat, fish, eggs, dairy products or oil are allowed to be eaten for the 48 days leading up to Easter. And, if you believe that, you’ll believe anything. It’s certainly all Greek to me!

Tuesday, 12th March, 2019

Strong winds this morning. The bins are rattling around. The natural world is in turmoil. We went to bed last night in mental turmoil as we listened to news that May & Cox had returned from Strasbourg with a ‘Deal’ which would ‘get Brexit across the line’ as common parlance would have it. How would the DUP and the ERG groups view it? This was the crucial thing. By midnight, the tiredness of the day had snuffed out the cares of the evening and brought the soothing sleep of night.

At 5.55 am the radio awakes us and the news tells us that the legal text will be available by mid morning but that they have secured ‘legally binding changes’ to the Backstop. That is the worst nightmare. It could bring the hard-line Leavers on board. Depression over orange juice at 7.00 am. By 9.00 am it is announced that the legal text has been released and it says in cold, factual text that the legal position has not changed at all since the last, huge rejection.

As we set off on our trip to the Health Club, Attorney General, codpiece-Cox explains the lack of change to the House of Commons. Working out on the jogger and the exercise bike while watching the proceedings makes the time wizz past. The Tory Benches are full for the Attorney General but sparse when the Prime minister gets up to speak. It soon becomes obvious that she hasn’t got support of her own side never mind the Labour Party. The question is can she squeeze her vote out? Nervous wait until it is announced that the DUP and ERG will not support the deal. Joy but nervous.

The Commons troops through the Lobbies at 7.00 pm and we hear that the Deal will fall. The ‘No’ lobby, we hear, is absolutely packed. The announcement and time to pop the corks as Brexit deal defeated by a huge 149 votes. The next two days will see votes to take ‘No Deal’ off the table and then, on Thursday to vote for an extension to Article 50 which will help facilitate another vote. This is the playing out of the scenario we have been envisaging since A50 was so perceptively triggered without any plan. Brexit is in the Terminal Ward.

Wednesday, 13th March, 2019

After the elation of last night, we were brought back down to earth this morning with the arrival of the post. Our Council Tax demand for the next year came through the door.

Actually, although the increase of 5.6% appears high in percentage terms and certainly high set against the current UK inflation rate of 2.1%, in reality it is not so high financially. Actually, although we’re starting our 4th year here, I couldn’t remember our Banding. When I looked up what Band F valuation was, I found our valuation in 1991 would have been £160,000.00/€187,000.00. If only we had bought it then. Of course, the lunacy of this system is that our house wasn’t built until 25 years after that indicative valuation.

Thursday, 14th March, 2019

A wild and windy morning that was extraordinarily mild – reading 15C/60F. We did our weekly shop at Asda and Tesco before setting off for the Health Club and our 7th consecutive session. Swimming was wonderful but the breeze across our backs was a little chilly as it whipped up spray and dashed it, even colder, down into our faces. We always follow 70 mins in the gym with 30 mins swimming outside and with 10 mins in the sauna. I follow that with 20 mins in the jacuzzi and water massage pool. By the time we leave, we have been there over 2 hours. By the end of all that and a shower, I feel fit, relaxed, excessively clean and fresh and ready for my meal.

Walked just short of 50 miles this week and 160 in the past month. In the past year, I’ve covered 1900 miles. I am quite pleased with that. In just over 3 weeks, I will be 68 years old and it will be almost exactly 10 years since I retired. On the exact anniversary of that day, I will stand outside my school and take a photo which will be placed in contradistinction to the scene pictured above. You may be surprised to see the difference on April 3rd. Everything changes, I know but I do get flash backs. I don’t long to go back ever. I am very happy with the present and look forward to the future but I do think one’s history informs future stages and keeping things in context is important.

Friday, 15th March, 2019

Almost three years ago, we were moving in to our new home without furniture. We had ordered a dining table and chairs from a shop in Oldham/Manchester but it hadn’t fully arrived. We needed somewhere to sit and eat so we rapidly bought a six-seater garden table and chairs from Argos and put it in the kitchen while we waited.

The garden furniture set cost about £300.00/€352.00 and we’ve had it three years. A cost of £100.00/€117,30 per year seems excessive but we needed more comfortable seating outside and so the old has to go. It was only ever a stop-gap. Today, we cleaned it up and stacked it on the drive – 6 x chairs + 1 x glass topped table + umbrella, pole and weight-anchor. It was collected by the local hospice charity, St Barnabas House which we used when we first arrived to donate about £3000.00/€3520.00 worth of artwork.

We went to the Health Club late because of the Hospice Pick-up. We had also been to collect another tranche of Euros bought at £1.00 = €1.18 which was a recent high. We just did 70 mins and not our swim. It wasn’t pleasant weather anyway. Light rain made it feel unpleasant. When we drove home, I cooked a dish of roasted Fennel, Onion, Red Pepper with sliced field mushrooms and dressed with Dill and olive oil. The chicken thighs were dressed with tarragon and Parmigiano Reggiano. It represented an answer to that Friday feeeling.

Saturday, 16th March, 2019

We are told that the weather is moving towards a fine, dry and settled spell. No real signs yet. It feels nice and mild although isn’t especially at 11C/51F and 4C less than yesterday. It is still spitting with rain and fairly grey above. Time for a change – to coin a phrase.

This time 9 years ago we were just boarding an Anek Lines vessel at Ancona bound for Patras. The day before, we had driven at top speed through Switzerland (as any sane human being would do) and on to Moderna in Italy where we stayed the night.

Only 9 years ago but it all seems a life time away. We still haven’t finalised travelling arrangements this year until Brexit uncertainty is resolved and it appears that we are not alone.

Anyway, back to the grindstone and a 9th consecutive day of exercise. If we don’t turn up, people will be starting to worry for our safety. However, the most amazing thing has happened over the past couple of nights. I have always woken at 6.00 am and gone to bed at midnight. I’ve done this most of my adult life apart from when I was teaching and studying for a Degree at the same time. Then, I rarely slept much at all. For the past two nights, we have gone to bed at 10.00 pm and 9.30 pm and slept like logs throughout. Although it seems a waste of time, we must have been tired.

Sunday, 3rd March, 2019

We made the right decision to stay at home today. Very unwelcoming outside – wet, grey and windy. So many bushes and particularly hydrangeas are budding up in anticipation of the Spring warmth. Daffodils have been flowering so early that many are already starting to go over.

Looking back, I find that 10 years ago today we had heavy snow in our Yorkshire, quarry garden but that it didn’t last. In retrospect, it seems a lifetime away. Our working lives were in their last few weeks although we couldn’t exactly be sure of that. Things were still being negotiated.

We still owed £65,000.00/€76,000.00 on our mortgage 10 years ago although it turned out that we only had another five weeks of paying it. At the signature of a pen, we stopped work, paid off our mortgage and set off for Greece. Now, in five weeks time, we are going back to see what has actually changed 10 years on.

Monday, 4th March, 2019

A quiet day at home in the morning and Health Club in the afternoon. We are beginning to pluck up courage to book our future trips but we will obviously spend some part of the summer in our deliciously, warm and sunny garden. We’ve decided to do it in comfort by ordering more comfortable garden furniture.

Reasonable price for Sofa, 2 x Arm Chairs, coffee table plus weatherproof covers. I ordered it and received an email back within minutes to say that it would be delivered on Thursday. It’s coming from Farnworth in Bolton, Lancashire. There is only one day this week that we will not be at home and that is …. Thursday. We are shopping in France. I emailed them back and received a message by return to say it would arrive on Friday instead. Incredible service!

Tuesday, 5th March, 2019

A busy morning out around the area including collecting ‘repeat prescriptions’ – Makes us sound so old. – and trips to Asda and Sainsburys. We leave the house at 1.00 pm and return from the Health Club at 4.00 pm. It does take a chunk out of the day but it makes us feel so much better. The trip from our house to the David Lloyd Health Club takes about 5 mins and there are notable views on the way. Before we drive through a heavily wooded stretch of road, we pass a couple of farmers’ fields which, on some days, are full of sheep and on others are covered in pheasants. Now I love pheasants to eat and the males look absolutely wonderful.

Back 60 years ago in rural Derbyshire, Dad used to go on a New Year’s Day pheasant shoot and then hang his kill in an outhouse to ‘mature’ before they were roasted and eaten. To a young lad, they seemed very strong in flavour. The joke was that game should be hung until it moved involuntarily (with maggots) before it was ready to be plucked, gutted and roasted. Dad also joked of running pheasants over on the roads around our village and sticking them in the back of his car to be taken home. For quite a few years, Pauline and I have been buying pheasant carcasses for about £3.50 each and enjoying them roasted at home.

As I drove to the Health Club today, a magnificent, cock pheasant scurried out of the woodland and across the road towards us. I didn’t have time to think but jammed on my brakes as ABS kicked in and I ground to a halt. Fortunately, the car coming the other way also saw what was happening, braked and the startled pheasant stepped back in to the woodland. It lives to be shot another day before ending up in my oven.

Wednesday, 6th March, 2019

A fairly uninspiring day of grey clouds and spits of rain which is a pity because our village has suddenly become a riot of colour with carpets of crocus and daffodils in full bloom and trees and bushes – cherry, magnolia, forsythia all shocked into colour by the recent warm weather. The two elements seemed rather incongruous as we drove out to Tesco this morning.

I had a task to do before I went out. It is Day 7 of my ‘challenge’, from an old, college friend, to review books which have most shaped my Life. For my final day, I recalled my post-formal education influences and described my personal attempts to widen my knowledge of the world of Music & Art. These were areas in which I felt my personal education was badly lacking.

I forced myself to buy and play classical works – starting with Chopin and Rachmaninov, moving on to Mozart, Beethoven, Sibelius and Shostakovich. Often, I hated what I was hearing but, by constant repetition, I began to learn and to love the music. For the first time, I found music profoundly moving. The Études and Nocturnes of Chopin could reduce me to a blubbering wreck. I learned something about myself that was a little frightening but I was pleased that I had confronted it.

Next, I had to try to break in to the world of Opera. It is quite daunting. My local newsagent – back in the day that I was going out to buy physical copies of The Times and we were still buying magazines – had a new publication on the shelves. It was a monthly booklet called Discovering Opera. Each month it featured a major work and was a collation of biography of the composer/librettist, a simple outline of the opera narrative, information of famous artists who had performed in past productions and a Cassette/CD of recordings of significant sections from those productions. Issue 1 was Bizet’s Carmen, followed by Puccini’s Tosca, Verdi’s La Traviata and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. After two years, Issue 24 and final edition featured Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin.

Of course, Opera is a performance art and we did go to some performances but it was soon apparent that it was not right for me. Music makes me cry. Lots of things make me cry but especially music. I cannot get through La Bohème without soaking my shirt but, worse, I cannot stop myself singing out loud along with the professionals. For that reason alone, I have been banned from live performances.

Thursday, 7th March, 2019

Up at 5.00 am and out by 5.30 am just as the light was rising. Driving to the Tunnel for an 8.30 am crossing. The traffic was light and very light at the tunnel. Actually, we left at 8.20 am (9.20 am CET) and drove off at 9.55 (CET). Our crossing was ‘free’ because I had pre-ordered £250.00/€293.00 of wine from Calais Wine Store. It was already on a trolley for me when we arrived. We picked another £250.00 worth of additional wine and loaded up the car after putting the back seats flat.

We drove on to Auchan in Coquelles with still signs of illegal immigrant penetration around the area. There was a strong, blustery wind which had a biting edge to it and a group of immigrants huddled together for warmth and protection from the elements in a bus shelter. As we drove past, a Gendamerie car stopped and they began to disperse. After loading our trolley with about £200.00/€234.00 of goods mainly dominated by Duck Breasts, Duck Legs and fish, we set off for Cité Europe a shopping centre located next to the French terminal of the Channel Tunnel at Coquelles.

It is all very convenient. Pauline bought a couple of pairs of summer shoes to add to the other 150 pairs that she rarely wears which are stored in her wardrobes. We bought cheeses and cured meats, some vegetables and lots of large jars of Moutarde Dijon which we love especially for cooking and in sauces.

Off back to the Tunnel sous le manche just 5 mins away at 12.30pm CET. That’s where the fun started. The passports and customs checks are being imposed as if we have left the EU and we immediately get stuck in horrendous queues for checking of vehicles and then for checking of passports. It is taking five times as long as it used to do and is very frustrating.

Just to add to the dissatisfaction, the weather changed rapidly to dark and brooding with blustery, cold and driving rain. As we drove to the UK tunnel entrance, we saw the motorway reduced to 2 lanes with the third reserved for queuing lorries and even worse was the freight queue on the French side. Just-in-Time will certainly become Just-in-Time-for -next-week if we Brexit. The French border is already beginning to look as bad as the Swiss crossing.

Friday, 8th March, 2019

Quite a long day yesterday and about 4 hours of driving. This morning we were a bit tired. We’ve got a delivery of garden furniture from Bolton. The company have sent me a text to say it will be between 12.30 – 14.30 which is just when we would have been off to the Health Club so tiredness and other circumstances conspire to keep us at home today. As a result, I decided to do a bit of garden tidying.

The hydrangeas are budding and opening so I have pruned back all the dead heads of last year. Quite a symbolic act. Unfortunately, I had only been outside for half an hour and I was really chilled. It is 10C/50F outside but there is a strong breeze and it feels so much colder. Why fight it. I gave up and settled for a cup of coffee.

The furniture has arrived, been unpacked in the garage, had its weather-proof coverings put on and set out on the patio. As we moved the furniture out of the garage and on to the patio, Pauline stumbled and fell, grazing her knee and bruising her ankle, thigh and hip. Fortunately, none of her injuries were very bad but bad enough and warning that we must take more care. The car is now stuffed to the gunnels with folded, cardboard boxes and polythene covers which will go to the local tip tomorrow. Outside, it has just started to rain lightly and we are going to spend the afternoon tucked up indoors.

Saturday, 9th March, 2019

When you have sisters in their 60s, you know you are in trouble. I’m in trouble! When we moved in to our new house, Catherine came round and brought us some small, cyclamen plants. Just over two years later, they are thriving, flowering and multiplying. As I photographed these this morning, a huge bumble bee sat on the petals. Signs of a nature’s cycle re-awakening.

Sunday, 24th February, 2019

Late February going on early June. Blue sky. Strong sunshine. A temperature of 16C/61F. Optimism everywhere as mowers chug, edges are cut and soiled is turned over. We just couldn’t sit inside. We went to the beach around 10.00 am. Strangely, quite a few others had thought of doing exactly the same thing. Dogs were trotting, children scooting, Mums & dads were biking, Seniors were strolling, all basking in the rays of renewed Life.

We walked for about 30 mins towards Lancing and then turned heel and walked 30 mins back. By the time we were leaving the coastal promenade and walking back across town to Waitrose carpark where we had left our car, the number of people out enjoying the air was incredible. I still can’t put my finger on what the precise attraction is of sea and beach but it is surely elemental. Pauline becomes a different person as she walks there. It stirs childhood memories or female, tidal movements. Who knows. I don’t question but go with the flow.

Monday, 25th February, 2019

The last week of February, 2019 is starting just fine. Long may it continue. Greece, on the other hand, has again suffered bad weather and lack of island transport as boats are tied up because of strong winds.

This morning, I have revelled in the warm sunshine so much that I have cut the lawns for the first time in weeks. It felt good to be doing something so optimistic. Orthodox Easter is April 28th, a week after Catholic Easter this year so the Greeks have just 61 days to prepare. First, the weather must dry up, warm up and brighten up. Paving will need to be painted. Buildings will need to dry out with bedding put outside to air. Maybe whitewashing can start and be finished during May. Most important of all will be fattening the lambs for slaughter. We’ve hardly eaten lamb since we left. 

Today, Sifnos has experienced a high of 11C/52F. UK has experienced an all time high of 21C/69F which is a record for  highest temperature in February. Swimming outside today was like being in Tenerife or Sifnos in late June. Absolutely delightful! It can’t last, of course but we will enjoy it while it does.

Today is officially the hottest February day on record in Britain as the temperature reached 20.3C in Ceredigion, west Wales.  

Tuesday, 26th February, 2019

The days just get better and better so much so that one is in danger of being lulled in to a false sense of security. Yesterday I cut the lawns and today I am feeding them but it could just as easily change in a few days time and turn really cold. Certainly, the garden centre where I went to buy my lawn feed was optimistically pushing Springtime products but there were few customers. We were reading 13C/56F by 9.00 am and the sun is strong in the sky. It just puts a little extra lightness in one’s step.

Unfortunately, we heard this morning that the lightness had gone out of one of our acquaintance’s steps last night. The husband of one of my Assistants at school died last night. Harry Taylor was also a Woodwork teacher in school in the 1970s -’80s. His wife, Norma, was my Assistant for a while. Harry had a terrible accident which debilitated him and, eventually, caused his early retirement. Up a ladder at home, he slipped and fell from a height causing him a brain injury and a stroke. He was impaired on one side of his body and, although he tried to carry on teaching, it eventually proved too much and he retired early. Harry kept active and did small woodwork jobs for people.

When my Mum died, I inherited The Richard Chair which I have featured here before. It was made by my Grandfather at the end of the Nineteenth Century, I think as an apprentice piece. Each first male in the line has Richard in his name. My Grandfather was Richard Watthew Sanders. My Dad was Eric Richard Sanders and I am John Richard Sanders. My brother, Bob, has a son with Richard in his name and the chair will go to him.

I remember Dad sitting on this chair at the head of the dining table for the years of my childhood. My Dad died in 1965.  The chair stayed with my Mum until she was selling the family home and I took it over. It was a bit the worse for wear and I asked Harry Taylor to refurbish it. He did an excellent job and it will, hopefully, survive another century which is more than can be said for Harry.

Absolutely delightful in the outside pool this afternoon with a temperature of 18C/65F and people not swimming but sunbathing in the beautiful light. After 70 mins in the gym, of course, we did our 30 mins in the pool as usual.

Wednesday, 27th February, 2019

The penultimate day of February, 2019 has been absolutely glorious. Hot, sunny and gorgeous. For some weird reason, Pauline & I had the outdoor pool to ourselves. It felt like we were back in Tenerife. We are doing 100 mins exercise each day for at least 5 and usually 6 days per week. We manage 600 mins or 10 hrs per week now which is not bad as we hurtle towards 68 years old. Must keep it up.

I had an enjoyable morning before PMQs writing a piece for an old friend who I haven’t seen since June 1972. He asked me to record the books that have influenced my life and I have spent an hour or so trawling through my collection. I don’t normally indulge in such sentimental trivia but it is nice to reach out to a shadow of my past.

I have spent a life time trying to educate myself and these, two books illustrate two strands of that attempt. The Arts and Political Philosophy represent the twin enthusiasms that I’ve followed. Of course, they are not mutually exclusive and often the latter can be better understood through the study of the former. Having taken my B.A. and my M.A., I was asked if I wanted to commit another 2-4 years completing a Doctorate. I would have loved to have gone on to that but the thought of meeting so many demands was ultimately too daunting. I don’t regret it now. In fact, the Degrees I achieved mean little to me now but the ideas and the experiences will inform me until the end.

Thursday, 28th February, 2019

Interesting day of sunshine and showers and a few degrees cooler than of late. We have done our weekly shop by visiting Asda, Sainsburys and Tesco. Nice to see Asda‘s new petrol station is now open and offering Unleaded at 6p per litre cheaper than any other outlet. It will become our regular for fuel now.

I was at Ripon (CofE, All Women’s) Teacher Training College between 1969 – 72. I didn’t do any work. Literally didn’t do any work. The country was desperate for English teachers and I filled the bill. They begged me to take a job and I duly obliged. Although I did no work, I began to learn a little about the real world, the opposite sex, different social classes, different geographic locations, a little bit about the meaning of money and how to order my own life rather than have it ordered for me. I reacted rather like a newly released prisoner who has spent decades being told what to do every minute of the day, released in to freedom and stumbling through a newly discovered decision making process.  Intellectually, I started to grow up.

My English Lit. tutor was one David MacAndrew. He was a quietly spoken lover of and writer of poetry. Actually, his poetry was dreadful and pretentious but he introduced me to published poets and publishers of poetry who would influence me for years to come. In 1970, David introduced me to the work of a Cumbrian poet, Norman Nicholson and then introduced me to him in person. We did a joint poetry reading in Leeds Town Hall.

On the occasion of David’s death, I am reminded of a poem from Norman Nicholson’s collection:

Friday, 1st March, 2019

Happy new month although it feels as if we have left Spring weather behind with a temperature of just 9C/48F and grey skies.

Out early this morning because Pauline has a hair appointment in town. I have the luxury of an hour in a coffee shop with my iPad which feels wonderful. Doesn’t the weather change one’s perception of the world? The whole area felt slightly depressing and sub-optimal as the new, terminology would describe it. Everywhere feels damp and chillier and, consequently, down at heel.

We have done 400 minutes exercise at the gym/pool this week and are feeling fairly stiff. We took the decision to give ourselves a day off today. It feels absolutely  terrible but we have stuck to it and just done a bit of shopping instead. Hopefully, we will go back to work tomorrow.

Saturday, 2nd March, 2019

We get restless feet after a week or two at home. It’s been almost 3 months this time since we went away. We are going shopping in France next week and we have got a trip to Yorkshire to meet friends at the beginning of April to coincide with the 10 year anniversary of our retirement from work but, we are struggling to commit to the plans we have been talking about for this year’s foreign travel. You’ll probably know why and, if you don’t, The Times this morning would have reminded you….

Of course, it’s not just Easter for most of us. Will we have new driving (Green Card, etc), passporting (Ours have less than a year to run.), health & insurance problems (No reciprocal cover through EHIC)? Will we have exchange rate problems? The Greek watchers and government have sort to reassure travellers and expats but even they certainly can’t be sure of Healthcare provision for Greeks never mind travellers. They certainly can’t be sure of exchange rates going forward.

Our new car, which has almost a 20 week lead-in time is manufactured in Japan. What will trading arrangements be like if we actually leave the E.U. which has a trade agreement with Japan but we don’t? What will the exchange rate be nearer to delivery time? Fortunately, although we had to put down a deposit of £1000.00 / €1162.00, we have a withdrawal clause in the event of increased cost. Just a 10% increase of £4000.00 / €4648.00 is substantial and might make us think again.

Sunday, 17th February, 2019

Started this beautifully sunny and mild morning optimistically We’ve booked a trip to France in early March. Looks like we will have to be in London for the penultimate weekend of March and are planning a quick trip to Yorkshire in early April. If you keep moving, you know that you’re still alive and that’s the deal. On this day 10 years ago, I wrote: Early off because we have a very busy Half Term week ahead. Today I say, What is Half Term?

We are also setting in train plans to trade in our ‘old’ car in exchange for the latest, all-wheel-drive, petrol/electric hybrid, 2.0ltr model. We were told it would be in the showrooms by early February but only the smaller engine 1.5ltr  has arrived so far. Honda are trying to entice us with

What they don’t realise is that these things will make absolutely no difference to people like us. A good purchase price allied to a good trade-in price will be the substance of our decision. For many years we have received ‘free’ servicing with our cars as well as ‘free’ emergency cover with AA and European Green Card Insurance. We have never had an MOT on any car because we never keep them long enough. Who has to pay for interior mats these days?

Off to the Health club again. Hope everyone else is out enjoying the sunshine by the sea so we have the facilities to ourselves. Griddled tuna steaks for our meal when we get home. Who needs Half Term when you’ve got a lifetime of self-indulgence like this?

Monday, 18th February, 2019

Contacted our local Honda Dealer to ask when the CRV 2.0, Hybrid, All Wheel Drive, Automatic would be available to purchase. We were shocked to find that, although they had a lower level model available, the one we wanted would not be available until June. Just as we were absorbing that disappointment, the news began to break that what Brextremists had been dismissing as Project Fear had become Project Reality. Honda announced that it was closing its Swindon Factory where the CRV is manufactured and moving back to Japan after 35 years in UK.

Of course, Brextremist are already scrambling to deny its connection to Brexit but you only have to look at the facts. Margaret Thatcher enticed Honda to UK by promising them an easy gateway to the European market. In the past couple of months, the EU has signed a huge trading agreement with Japan which means they don’t need the UK as a gateway even if we Remain. Swindon voted Leave and now cannot feel aggrieved that they have shot themselves in the foot. We await Toyota in Derby next.

Tuesday, 19th February, 2019

Happy Birthday to my brother, Bob who catches me up today at the age of 67. Of course, I look a lot younger but he’s had a much harder life than me. He likes cold weather and snow. he likes walking in the Lake District. All of these things make one age prematurely. Let’s hope he has a few more years left in him. He really seems to be enjoying his retirement. It is certainly one scary thing to be hurtling towards announcing that we are 70.

I have searched for a new car on Carwow and already had one good offer from only 40 miles away in Bracknell. I’ve had my car priced up for trade-in at £20,200.00/€23,265.00 and the new one is offered at £37,100.00/€42,725.00. This is a fantastic deal so I will be following it up tomorrow.

Lovely time at the Health Club in spite of the fact that it is Half Term and there are a few kids let in during the afternoon. Just nice to get the exercise done in lovely weather.

Wednesday, 20th February, 2019

Gorgeous, warm and sunny day with lovely, blue sky. Before PMQs, I have had some ‘stuff to do’. We want to visit our friends in the North so I booked 3 nights at a hotel we have used for years – Holiday Inn, Brighouse. We used to be members of their Health Club for a number of years and we have made the hotel our base when we return to Yorkshire over the past decade. They have a couple of Suites and, because we don’t go more than a couple of times a year, we always book a suite. It has a large bedroom with TV, a lovely bathroom, a large lounge with TV and a dining area with drinks-making facilities. It gives a feeling of home-from-home.

Now, I forgot to mention that I’ve had a heavy, head cold for a few days. When I’m like this – which is very rare nowadays – I am absolutely dozy. I usually ask my wife to drive because it’s safer. Today, I was just printing out my confirmation of the hotel booking – 3 nights with breakfast for £491.00/€565.00 – when I realised that I had booked the wrong month. I am, fortunately, an IHG member and phoned the helpline who immediately rebooked the 3 nights for me and the bill was reduced to £390.00/€448.00. Good result. No idea why the previous week was so much more in demand.

Just as that process was finished, the postman pushed a small parcel envelope through the letterbox. A couple of days ago, as the cold was at its height, I ordered a new phone cover for Pauline. Today, it arrived and … it was the wrong one. We both have Huawei P2 Pro smartphones. I ordered a cover for its smaller, sister model. I have to re-order and let Pauline drive tomorrow.

Thursday, 21st February, 2019

After yesterday’s dozy debacles, they were compounded by a phone call from my bank’s Fraud Department doing a ‘routine check’ on our credit card purchases which I didn’t notice had come through as a text on my phone and resulted in our account being ‘temporarily frozen’. By the time I noticed and had it ‘unfrozen’, the IHG booking was showing ‘Payment Declined’. When I rang them, they said they knew me well and would take payment when I arrived at the hotel, thankfully. Just as a coda to these events,  this morning I ordered another ‘wrong’ replacement case before cancelling and reordering the right one. Pauline will still be driving today. I am trying to buy a new car today so let’s hope I choose the right one……

………… Well, I didn’t even get the chance to buy the wrong one. The supplier didn’t even bother to phone me back. I have a feeling that I’ll be having a sharp word tomorrow before visiting another dealer.

One thing I have found out is that the interior wood trim which they must think enhances the car but reminds me of the 1950s can be replaced by polished metallic finish at an additional cost of £375.00/€431.00. I think I’ll have to pay it.

Friday, 22nd February, 2019

This morning, we found that the new car is no longer made in UK but in Japan and we can’t have one until the end of July. We’ve ordered it. We’ve chosen to have the wood trim removed. We’ve ordered it from our local Honda dealer where we bought the last car because nobody has a new, hybrid model of the level we want. They will not be in the country at all until late July. The Dealer assessed our car and gave us a good trade-in price which takes in to account another 4 months of driving. We also have all the other ‘incentives’ I listed on Sunday including free servicing for the next 5 years which is useful to have banked.

It is a mild but quite foggy morning. Because we were early in our meeting at Honda, we went a little further into the Marina. It looked so different in this ghostly light.

The fishing boats were late in – perhaps because of the fog – and the fisherman’s shed  stood waiting for the catch to sell. It all looked a little depressing and uninviting as seaside resorts tend to in Winter. This afternoon, the fog lifted, the sun beamed out and the temperature rose markedly. We decided that we’d been to the gym a great deal in the past two weeks – only missing 2 days – so we decided to relax and plan some time away in the sunshine.

Saturday, 23rd February, 2019

Chalk & Cheese – yesterday and today. Yesterday, dark, damp and foggy. Today, bright, sunny, blue sky, Mediterranean. It really does feel like Spring is coming although it could be a false dawn. The grass is certainly growing. I will be cutting, feeding it and reseeding areas in the next few days. It’s not looking to bad but some spots are decidedly thin.

Having sold the car yesterday, I cleaned it today. Wrong way round, I know but it needed it and we won’t be exchanging it for another 4 months. Full valet including treating leather seats, steam cleaning carpets and pressure washing the outside with wax shampoo took two hours. Before that, I had unstacked the dishwasher and hoovered the house top to bottom. A ma’s work is never done. After it we did more than two hours at the Health Club by which time I was almost out on my feet.

Sunday, 10th February, 2019

Another grey and damp day and not desperately warm. Football, Rugby and newspapers indoors. I’ve never understood those who choose to jostle with crowds of other people to queue in inclement weather and pay through the nose for an unsatisfactory view of a match I can watch in close up and glorious technicolour in the comfort and seclusion of my own home. There are people people and there are the others. I am of the others.

Today, I am producing two digital birthday cards for the coming week. My favourite is for my brother-in-law, Kevan. I’ve managed to snatch a photo from Facebook and dress it up for the occasion. Hope he likes it. It is becoming a real dilemma these days – whether to use email as we do every day or to stay traditional and post a card. We debated it at Christmas but came to the conclusion that it looked too cheapskate to just use email and a number of our older friends don’t use it anyway. Only Ruth did it this year but you can see it coming.

Fantastic England rugby against France. It is only Half Time and England lead 30 – 8. Jonny May has a hat trick of tries that made the French look slow. I’ve now got a real dilemma – watch the second half of the rugby or the first half of Man.City v Chelsea. Problems, problems and Pauline is calling me to eat roast cod loin with garlic fan tail prawns and salad. Fortunately, she won’t mind me watching one of these while we eat but…which one?

Monday, 11th February, 2019

A beautiful day which starts off with attention to services – all three bins out for collection, Recycle, Garden Waste & Black Bag – over the space of about 3 hours. Next, haircut. It used to drive me mad when I was working but now, I love to get rid of all that curly excess. And it’s free! Finally, out to the garage to tidy up the ‘loft storage’.

Every time we buy something, I am restrained from my automatic instinct which is to tear open the packaging and start assembling/using the item without reading the instructions or consideration that it might not be suitable/workable. Pauline is my conscience and ‘control’ and I am advised to open the packaging carefully and then store it in case the item needs to be returned. Consequently, our garage loft space is absolutely full of empty, just-in-case, cardboard boxes which sit there for months and sometimes years.  

I have written before – maybe because of my rubbish clearance obsession – that West Sussex waste disposal services are fantastic. Our experience has got better the further south we have moved. Huddersfield was terrible although claimed to be wonderful. They had built a power generating unit in their waste disposal site but access for Council Tax payers was awkward and time consuming. At home, collections were every fortnight but now have moved to every three weeks. I actually bought a bin-rammer which helped me ram the waste more compactly into the bin so that it took up less space but made the bin so heavy that I could hardly wheel it out.

In Surrey, Council Tax payers were treated like the enemy as they were continually threatened over recycling their waste and collections were every fortnight. Here in West Sussex, our Black Bin is collected every week and our recycling and garden waste every fortnight. The household Waste Recycling Site is staffed by the most delightful people who actually help you empty your car and guide you to the correct dumping bins. Waste Paradise!

Tuesday, 12th February, 2019

As one gets older, the figures that have illuminated the tableau of one’s life begin to fall off the conveyor belt which is our time continuum. So it was with Kennedy, with Martin Luther King, and with Mandela on the World stage as with Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle, Tony Benn, Dennis Healey in the British sphere. The poets, Norman Nicholson, Ted Hughes and Philip Larking figured highly in the tapestry of my 1970s as politics and poetry were interwoven in my development and formed a significant backdrop to the events of my 20s.

Today, we hear that Gordon Banks, an iconic figure from my teens, has fallen off the conveyor belt of time. At the age of 15, on Saturday 30th July, 1966, I was standing on a platform in Derby railway station. It was hot and sunny and we were listening to The Shadows (I think it was Foot Tapper) and then on to the World Cup Final. The names from that day will ever decorate the memory in contemporaries’ minds. Gordon Banks will feature brightly in that scene.

The kitchen is smelling so Greek this morning. Pauline is making Ginger & Cinnamon biscuits. She has such skill that she knocks them up quicker than I could drive to Sainsburys to buy some and with so much better effect. Of course, I’m not allowed to eat them but I am permitted to sniff the air!

Wednesday, 13th February, 2019

Another beautiful morning. Not very warm yet but warm enough that the outdoor pool will not be visibly steaming in the sunshine. This week has seen that change. Birds are singing optimistically, crocuses and even some daffodils are flowering enthusiastically.  

Isn’t this so emblematic of life that, yesterday, I was writing about lost figures from the past and, today, we are looking forward to the Spring. Life is in constant flux but, as one gets older, longing for the next season incorporates a wish for bringing the inevitable closer. Officially, the start of Spring this year is Wednesday, March 20th – 5 weeks away. I, along with the birds and bulbs, will enjoy early Spring weather as I swim in the sunshine.

Meanwhile, Greece is still very much in the grip of Winter. Force 10 winds, snow, driving rain and ferries tied up are not so inviting are they? Many parts of central and northern Greece lie covered in a blanket of snow today as a new cold front holds the entire country in its frigid grasp. There are no ferry services to the Cyclades but, at least the beaches are not crowded.

I’ve been busily badgering BT (not easy for me to say) about my broadband speed. Two weeks ago, I had an engineer come to see me about my broadband speed which is 32 Mbps Download & 11 Mbps Upload. When I complained, they told me that I should be getting a minimum of 44Mbps and I had a personal conversation with my engineer’s Line (Get it?) Manager. He assured me he would work on it and I should contact me in a fortnight. Today I phoned him and he told me nothing had yet been done and I should phone him … in a fortnight. I will.

Thursday, 14th February, 2019

Thursday has opened cold but beautiful with clear, blue sky scored by airplane tracks and strong sunshine. It is shopping day. Central in our shopping nowadays is the excellent wet fish counter at Tesco. We have become friendly with the head fishman. He has certificates on the wall behind his display which is always attractive. Because we spend so much with him each week, he is very amenable to special requests. He supplies us with newly delivered, ‘joints of Tuna’ which we can cut into our own steaks. A joint provides about 6 huge steaks and will cost us about £34.00/€38.50 which is quite economical.

In the past week, Tesco announced that it was closing its fish counters at Tesco Extra stores – the largest stores where specialist counters ought to be a real attraction. It seemed madness. Tesco’s reasoning said that consumers are not shopping for ‘specialist’ delicatessen-type goods including wet fish and were rather favouring pre-prepared, pre-packaged items picked from shelves. We were disappointed at that news and resolved to write to Tesco management. This week, our fishman told us that they had been called in and reassured that their counter would remain. That’s one strong vote for Remain with one more still to go. We’ll get there!

Friday, 15th February, 2019

Another gorgeous day that has reached 14C/57F with clear, blue sky and strong sun. Similar weather is forecast for the next few days and we are beginning to think we will need sun-screen on for swimming and that is something we haven’t said since November when we were in Tenerife.

The waves of Brexit-crisis are crashing around our ears and we have reason to be unsettled but not half as much as all those ex-pat Brits living in other European countries.

I was surprised to find that Greece only has about 15,000 ex-pat Brits but I wasn’t surprised that Greece is one of the least prepared EU countries to offer advice to them. This comes from an English Language, Norwegian Newsletter:

GREECE

Greece has been quiet on whether it will create legislation to allow more than 15,000 Brits who live in the country to remain should the UK exit from the European Union (EU) political bloc on March 29th, 2019, without a deal with the EU. As at February 6th 2019, Greece has made no announcements on UK citizens rights after Brexit.

According to the Living in Crete website, the British Ambassador says: ” The UK has unilaterally committed to protect the rights of EU citizens in the UK in the event of a no deal scenario, and want to see our EU Member States do the same. My colleagues at the British Embassy in Athens and I have been in frequent contact with the Greek authorities, including at the highest levels in government, to share details of our offer and to press for reciprocity for UK nationals in Greece.”

The Local Europe AB

There are already many threats to UK travellers including

• immediate loss of Mobile Roaming
• immediate loss of EHIC reciprocal medical services
• immediate requirement to have European Driving Licence
• pre-booked ferries & flights threatened with removal or repricing

Saturday, 16th February, 2019

A grey start to the day and just 9C/48F but set to get a lot warmer before I make the (semi) naked trek out to the pool. We are certainly moving in to easier times. My job today is to prepare our meal for this afternoon so that it is ready when we get back from the Health Club at about 4.30 pm and starving.

My dish starts with two onions, four carrots, four sticks of celery and a bulb (yes, bulb) of garlic all roughly chopped and sweated off together. I am using one of the large, heavy, cast iron pans we bought almost 40 years ago – bright orange, Le Creuset ones. We don’t use them so much these days because they are so heavy but they are perfect for this dish. We have a large, heavy duty, cast iron trivet-topped, gas hob which can take such a heavy skillet and I sweat the vegetables off on there and throw in a packet of fresh sage roughly chopped. I also brown off two (French) duck legs and six pork sausages cut into pieces on this hob.

The meat and the vegetables are joined by haricot beans, chopped, plum tomatoes and a bottle of red wine and the whole thing goes into the oven to cook slowly for around 2.5 hours. Anything we don’t eat will form the basis for soup which we eat a bowl of each day before we go out to the gym. It is always home-made by Pauline. In fact, the one thing we will have eaten in the past couple of months that is not entirely home-made is the pork sausages in the cassoulet. We have and do make our own but not on this occasion and it does feel a little treacherously inconsistent but we all have to live a little bit dangerously.

While I was preparing the meal, Pauline was making another batch of ginger & cinnamon biscuits (She wasn’t totally happy about the last lot.) and making 4 loaves of wholemeal bread for herself.

Sunday, 3rd February, 2019

Beautiful morning with clear sky and strong sunshine. Started off cold at 1C but rapidly warmed up until we reached 8C at mid morning. I must admit, I much prefer the milder conditions that are forecast for the weeks ahead. My brother, Bob, who is weird, goes around celebrating snowfall. He actually volunteered and spent 3 years of his life in the Antarctic as part of the survey team on South Georgia. It takes a specially weird type of person to want to do that. However, he has become a really good photographer of landscapes.

It is the sort of thing I once had pretentions to do but, like so many things, I didn’t want it enough to put in the time. I think Bob gets up early and goes out on his own looking for places and scenes to photograph. It does need some dedication. I am dedicated to may things but photography has turned out not to be one of them.

Braised pheasant for our meal tonight. Now that’s something I could dedicate myself to although my enjoyment will be narrowed somewhat because of the alcohol ban. Pheasant and red wine are a match made in heaven but I am on a dry few months. I did the whole of January alcohol-free and then celebrated with a bottle of claret. I am now doing the whole of February alcohol free and then will take it month on month. I would like to get through to June with just 6 bottles of wine. I can do it but do I want to? We’ll see.

Monday, 4th February, 2019

Horrible cold, grey, wet morning. The bins have to go out – in this weather? My mind immediately turns to where we can go to find warmth and sunshine. We are stuck at 7C/45F. Tenerife is currently 22C/70F and sunny. That would do. If things don’t pick up soon, we will have to do something.

Greece’s National Meteo Service  has issued a Red Alert warning of extreme weather phenomena – heavy rainfalls, powerful storms, hail-falls and snow. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? You wouldn’t go looking for warm sun there. Actually, British Holiday Companies are reporting strong bookings for Summer travel although with an increased bias away from Europe possibly because of Brexit uncertainty. Turkey is a big winner, apparently, although it won’t be with us.

When we go to the Health Club, we are always amused that people paying to exercise try to park as close to the front doors as they can possibly get even if it means cramming their car into an unacceptably small space. We always park as far away as we can across the huge carpark so we have a long walk in and back. We regretted it today as we scurried the 200ms in driving rain and cold, blustery winds. It was actually 9C/48F but the brisk breeze made it feel freezing especially as we were only wearing shorts and tee-shirts.

Tuesday, 5th February, 2019

I try to be honest in my Blog. If I cannot be blunt with my thoughts here, where can I be. I lay myself open to ridicule and humiliation. One of the ‘problems’ I have is being a slave to routine. It can have a positive spin because I am driven to complete tasks without questioning and to adopt life-enhancing activities even when I don’t feel like doing them. However, Pavlov’s dogs and I have quite a bit in common. I don’t know if it has got worse in older age or just that I have more time to observe, acknowledge and reflect on it but it touches all areas of my life. I have ordered routines when I get up in the morning. I have ordered routines before I go to bed at night. I have very ordered routines when I have a shower whether if I am in the gym or at home.

Aside from Daily ordered routines, I have monthly and yearly ones as well. On the first day of each month, I take and record certain statistics from the previous month – gas & electricity consumption for example. At the opening of the new month, the filter on the water purifier has to be changed – a spill over from our time in Greece. Also, at the opening of the new month I update my home web pages which are my default pages and links on all my browsers.

I won’t bore you any more by listing examples of my annual routines but they exist and bind me in. Of course, many would describe this as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder but I find that too medicalised and official. They’ll be describing my forgetfulness as Alzheimer’s next.

Wednesday, 6th February, 2019

Another grey day but incredibly warm – 11C/52F at 7.00am. We were out by 9.30am for a trip to Worthing on Sea on open market day. It wasn’t very inviting for shoppers who were greeted with grey sea skies shrouded in sea mist. It isn’t the most exciting light wherever you are but seaside towns seem particularly depressing and sad in this weather – perhaps because we associate them with holidays and sunshine. The streets, buildings, outdoor stalls all had a mantle of dampness. The seascape was heavily redacted by mist.

We had saved a number of tasks until we went to Worthing so did a brisk walk across town to visit M&S to spend a voucher Pauline had received for a Christmas present. Wilko‘s and Waitrose were also on the list and then a drive to B&Q. The whole trip had to be completed in time for PMQs with the Politics Live programme starting at 11.15 am.

Lovely to see the Brexiteers, who have spent years slagging the European Union off, screaming blue murder when the compliment is returned by Donald Tusk. The more the Brextremists are alienated, the less likely they will be prepared to accept May’s deal and the more they will demand No Deal. Political paralysis is what will lead to a second referendum on May’s deal or Remain which we are working towards. We need to be expanding the referendum electorate to include young people and expats who it will affect most. I really can’t understand how an ex-expat and lover of Greek Island life can favour UK’s severance from Europe and the loss of so many privileges/facilities that their expat friends rely on/enjoy. There must be a logic in it somewhere.

Thursday, 7th February, 2019

Out early on a wonderfully bright and sunny morning but one which felt much colder than its 10C/50F because of a strong and biting breeze. Shopping Day – when isn’t it? Asda for bananas because they are the best quality of all the supermarkets and then Tesco because of habit and they have a petrol station. The price of petrol today is 1.18.9p/€1.35 per litre but, because of our spend, we get a 5p/€0.57 off per litre voucher. Filling up only every fortnight, we’ve got six weeks of reduced bills to come. Generally, however, Asda petrol stations are the price leaders by some way and, after a long battle with local residents, Asda won their fight to add a petrol station to the carpark. We are absolutely delighted and found it developing well when we went shopping this morning.

Another thing which persuades us to do our main shop in Tesco is the savings vouchers we accrue each week. Today, our £100.00/€113.60 bill was reduced by £16.00/€18.20 as we cashed in last month’s vouchers – a saving not to be sneezed at.

We like to do all our shopping with a hand scanner. It is so much quicker and more controlled. When it comes to Checkout, I pay with my phone using Tesco Pay+ app which is so convenient and that is where the financial vouchers arrive as well so there is no paper involved at all. In Asda, we do the same but pay with Google Pay but that is limited to contactless limit of £30.00/€34.08 which makes it less useful. However, the ability to do the whole shop without human contact is delightful.

Friday, 8th February, 2019

Out early on a mild but grey morning. We were going to Rustington to collect my new glasses. It comes to something when that is the highlight of the day. Rustington is a town centre dominated by the older shopper.  Old people congregate in groups, standing around blocking pavements and shouting, What? at each other as they adjust their hearing aids.

Today I was collecting two pairs of long sight glasses and two pairs of reading glasses. Total price of £316.00/€361.00 feels reasonable and they will last me a couple of years at least. The previous two pairs will be stuck in a cupboard just in case – just in case what? I have no idea but it seems profligate to throw them away. The two pairs that I had been keeping ‘just in case’ can now be thrown away. The emotional attachment of four years ago has been weakened enough for that. The reading glasses are just replacement lenses because Specsavers no longer stock the ‘half-moon’ frames that I prefer. May have to keep these going for a few more years until they come back into fashion.

When we bought our new house in March 2016, we opted for a ‘upgrade’ kitchen mainly because we wanted a wine cooler and a swan-necked tap and a double oven. (Oh God!) As a result, we got things we didn’t really want which included one real shock when we moved in. The plinth at the base of the kitchen cupboards was illuminated a la Blackpool.

Today, one of those lights failed. One of the few things that aren’t covered by our 5-Year Warranty are light bulbs. We were going out near an electrical shop so I thought I would take this failed one with me to replace. Having checked behind the plinth, I looked this light (which came on a plugged lead) up on the internet.

This is it so I phoned the manufacturer but the company wouldn’t sell us any. The line has been discontinued although they have some still in stock. They sell to Trade only. Like so many new house developments, our kitchen was supplied by Symphony. We phoned them. They said they could sell us a pack of 4 for the amazing price of £126.00/€144.00. They are solid-state LEDs and really shouldn’t have failed at all but we had little option but to purchase them. It does go a bit against the grain though.

Saturday, 9th February, 2019

After 5 hard days of activity including 5 consecutive sessions at the Health Club, we have decided to stay at home for the weekend. Football matches, Rugby matches, newspapers and political programmes will dominate. The weather has actually been quite warm and pleasant. We griddled tuna steaks outside in the garden for our meal. As we went through our day, we carried sad and heavy memories of our past lives with us.

Today was the memorial service of our first headteacher who died at the end of December. John Gillespie was a interesting man. He had taught at Gordonstoun School and then, having married a young cellist from that school, he moved on to become Head of an International School in Nigeria. Tragedy befell them when his wife contracted polio swimming in infected water out there and they returned to England where John got a Headship in Oldham of all unlikely places.  

Not to be defeatist, he and his severely handicapped wife, threw themselves in to all the cultural activities which they so loved. John was an avid amateur actor. His brother was a professional actor. John became an important member of the Saddleworth Players and remained so for almost 50 years. With his wife, he also set up the Saddleworth Concert Society in which both of them performed. His wife, Ruth, died about 10 years ago. John Gillespie died last December aged 92. It seemed a long way to drive for a memorial service but we carried thoughts of him round in our head all day.

He finished teaching in 1984 and had a long and rich  retirement of 34 years. As we approach our first 10 year anniversary of laziness, another 24 would not go amiss. Just think of all the travel we can do in that time and all the new cars. Will we still use cars in 2043? Will we still be in the EU? Will global warming have brought the Mediterranean to us by then? It seems so long off but we know it really isn’t.

Sunday, 27th January, 2019

Lovely, sunny day and reasonably mild. Political programmes, Sunday papers, trip to the gym and home to slow-roast chicken with sage & onion stuffing. Lovely day in prospect. Especially lovely if you’ve got someone wonderful to share it with. We must remember those who don’t. 

Apart from all of this and while Pauline is steam cleaning the floors, I am continuing with my long term task of digitising the contents of all our old photo albums. It is an emotional journey for softies like me. I am half way through our first album after we got married and covers the years 1997 – 1981. So far, I have backed-up 26Mb of photographs to memory stick and the Cloud. Pauline is concerned that there won’t be enough room and I am having to reassure her that we could live to be 100 before we use up all our storage space.

I have long been a fan of Cloud storage because it fits with a travelling life style. I used to have a portable, back-up drive but found it a bit too cumbersome. To be able to pick up and work on files anywhere in the world is just right for me. I moved on to Microsoft‘s offering called OneDrive which gave me a terabyte or 1024 megabytes of storage for free. When Microsoft began charging ‘rental’ for MS Office, they reduced the ‘free’ storage to 50mb which is nowhere near enough and charge £60.00 per year for the 1tb. Fortunately, I pay for BT Broadband and get BT Sport and 1tb cloud storage ‘free’ plus free access to all the BT wi-fi hubs around Britain and that is what I now use.

Monday, 28th January, 2019

Glorious morning for putting the bins out at 7.00 am – blue sky, low sunshine, crisp. Could be an interesting week.

I am continuing my project of digitising our photographic record of the past 40 years. It is quite an emotional process which, last night, was interspersed with watching Call the Midwife which always makes me cry followed by Les Misérables which is just a laugh a minute. What is so scary is the difference and distance between 1979 and 2019. I am sitting in our Home Office with a framed certificate announcing that I was awarded my BA English 40 years ago in 1979 and my MA History 30 years ago in 1989. What seemed so important to me then really doesn’t now. I have subsumed that experience long ago.

It is hard to fully accept the passage of time. Actually, this digital project is quite helpful in that respect. Looking back through the tunnel of time, things have changed so much. I was born in 1951 and began Grammar School in 1962. By 1969, I was accompanying my girlfriend to the contraception clinic so she could get her free supply of pills. To see these developments depicted in Call the Midwife is rather like watching another world. It is a force of intellect and imagination to draw oneself to accept that it is my history. What it does underline is there was no Golden Age. There is nothing I would long to go back to. I feel so lucky to have survived it and I do not yearn to be young again. I love the age I am. I can be open, honest, blunt and unrepentant, scruffy, unshaven, unwashed, over fed and drunk. I can be whatever I want to be. I can even walk on walls.

Tuesday, 29th January, 2019

Had to be up early this morning and there was a slight hint of frost on the roofs. Crystal, clear morning with the sun rising in a cloudless sky. It is really noticeable that the sun is rising much earlier now and that gives us all hope.

Had to be up early because we have a telephone engineer coming between 8.00 am – 1.00 pm – an awkwardly wide time frame. The occasion of his visit is a response to my concern about my broadband speed. It shouldn’t worry me. Back at the opening of this century, I had just moved from dial-up to twin ISDN lines (a pre-cursor of Broadband) and I was receiving under 2 Mbps. Today, I am receiving 32 Mbps Download & 11 Mbps Upload. I really don’t notice any incapacity. However, I keep being bombarded by BT with invitations to take Ultra Fast Broadband with speeds of 100 Mbps. This is fibre to the house which we don’t have. Before we moved in and before the road surface was complete, I wrote to BT and asked them to contact David Wilson Homes in order to co-ordinate fibre-to-the-door broadband. Neither party did so. Two years later, most new homes are being offered that service.

In addition to that, our ‘Contention Rate’ (the sharing of broadband width in an area) is going up all the time as new builds come on stream and need broadband and the demands we are placing on our broadband is increasing exponentially with not just one PC per house but many and tablets, smartphones, smart televisions and the onset of the ‘internet of things’ meaning I can control so many actions in my house – lights, heating, blinds, fridge, even my toothbrush over the net. I have Superfast Fibre Broadband from BT. This is fibre to the street cabinet and then old copper from there to our house. According to BT, this service could yield 67 Mbps but, when I enquired, they said in our area, we should expect 44 Mbps.

Still falling 25% short of that, I complained and a ‘next day’ engineer was despatched. Wayne arrived at 8.05 am and checked my phone line and the street cabinet and pronounced it ‘full’. It needs extra fibre capacity installing, Wayne announced. He gave me his manager’s personal office number to phone to have further discussions. And that is what I will do.

Wednesday, 30th January, 2019

The penultimate day of January has been a gorgeous, Spring-like one with blue skies, strong sunshine and moderate temperatures. We had woken at 7.00 am to a light touch of frost on the roofs but it was gone within an hour and forgotten.

On social media, people from our old stomping ground, the North of England, were posting pictures of a very familiar scene. Winter on the Pennines means almost invariably snow at some time and so it was today. Manchester and Liverpool airports were closed, the M62 was hazardous and the exit road we would have taken to our school was almost impassable. Schools across Oldham were closed and work journeys made extremely hazardous.

We remember these conditions only too well although it is 10 years now since we had to experience them. We certainly don’t miss them. In fact, we have hardly seen a sight of snow since we left West Yorkshire and that is fine by us. Snow is not unknow here. About 10 years ago, apparently, they were snow-blocked for a while. However, temperatures are definitely moderated by proximity to the sea and we bask in the warmth of that. We have been warned that we might get a bit of snow tomorrow but we’ll believe it when we see it.

Today,  I went shopping in my shorts and tee shirt, the outdoor pool was popular at the Health Club and we came home to griddle tuna steaks in the garden. We wouldn’t have been doing any of that in Huddersfield.

Thursday, 31st January, 2019

Well, January is going out with a bit of frost this morning. We have done our weekly shop by visiting Sainsburys and Tesco. If you include a tank of petrol, our outlay is around £200.00. Tesco was absolutely packed. We couldn’t decide whether the old people were stocking up in the event of heavy snow or the crisis that could be Brexit. Lots of tinned food flying off the shelves.

It is cold but not Northern cold. We have reached 7C/45F this morning. I am in my shorts and the sea breeze is a little chilly but I’m tough. On this week 10 years ago, we had just completed our final ever Ofsted inspection and I was preparing to visit a cardiologist for a heart scan which ultimately revealed my atrial fibrillation. I was also posting a montage of my Mum who had died 9 months earlier and whose memory had been evoked by a play on television. Heavy snow was forecast for tomorrow as it is this year and our retirement was just a couple of months away although we didn’t really know it at the time. How much has happened since then January 2009.

Friday, 1st February, 2019

Just to emphasise that we have entered February, it decided to give us a dusting of snow overnight and the world came to an end. This morning the world was covered with, what Northerners would call a heavy frost but closed schools and offices down here. Bus time tables were cancelled and train timetables altered. Some commuters thought Friday was a good one to stay at home.

The man across the road asked me to collect any snow there was on my drive so his little girls could make a snowman. I suggested he took them to Yorkshire. On this day 10 years ago, heavy snow was falling in West Yorkshire and transport links were genuinely blocked or extremely hazardous. If UK ever Brexits, all of these weather conditions will be exported to Skiathos under a bi-lateral, free-trade agreement which will see hot sunshine proliferate in England from October – May. The Health Club was packed as so many had decided it was too difficult to get to work but they might just make it to the David Lloyd Club.

Saturday, 2nd February, 2019

A beautiful, bright, sunny morning. Still cold but all the signs of snow and frost have gone. Bring on the Spring! Actually, we are going to have a couple of days off from exercise. Pauline is re-waxing the dining table top (3 coats), making chicken stock in the garden, making a dozen salmon and cod fishcakes for the freezer, changing the bed, doing the washing and a bit of ironing, cooking whitebait with three salads for our meal, marinating a pheasant for tomorrow’s meal while I watch some sport and read the papers. It’s this division of labour that makes our marriage so stable.

Watched England destroy the Irish backstop in a thrilling rugby international. I also watched a couple of enjoyable Premier League matches and a bit of the test match from West Indies. When I got stiff from sitting in the Lounge watching sport, I ambled over to the Office and researched Dash-Cams for our new car which can’t be far away now. I know I’ve written about this before but it is becoming more imminent. For a year or two I’ve thought of getting a Dash-Cam but have been put off by the idea of trailing wires cluttering up my car. I spoke to Honda about it when I enquired about the new car and they assured me they would hard-wire one in so I wouldn’t have to worry.

I spent an hour or so researching models and reading reviews and, finally, decided that the Nextbase Duo HD Dash Cam (£150.00/€172.00) would provide all the facilities I would need without breaking the bank. It fits just below the rear view mirror and features two, HD cameras – one for forward recording and the second, zoom one, looking back through the rear screen. Both have night vision. Both record simultaneously. Recording begins with the engine on and ends with the engine off. Although the unit uses a micro SDHC memory card which can be read straight into a PC, there is an app to produce immediate download wirelessly to a smartphone.

To a tech junkie, gadget man like me, it all sounds like heaven. I am obviously going to satisfy an urge I’ve been mulling over for ages. I was watching a video review of this particular model. The presenter listed all its admirable facilities and tried to clinch the recommendation by listing the reasons why I might want one. He managed two. It’s useful in the event of an accident and it might save you some money on your insurance premium. Is that compelling enough? I am determined to buy Pauline the best Dash-Cam I can find.

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