Sanders Blog

Sunday, 2nd March, 2025

Gorgeous morning. Sunshine does make one feel better doesn’t it? We live about 36 miles from Gatwick Airport. It takes about 45 mins to drive there. By the time planes have reached us to cross the channel, they are silent specks in the sky with long, white trails behind them. How much more traffic we will have with an extra runway remains to be seen.

Already I have booked 8 flights for this year – each one with Easyjet and each one from Gatwick. It is an easy transition. For some, I drive and park in the Long Stay and for others, I get a taxi allied to a night’s stay in a hotel at the airport – usually I book Sofitel because it is a nice hotel with a convenient walk across to Departures and I am a member who gets discounts. I like discounts.

Effectively, all my trips excluding those to the North of England are ways of buying sunshine. Of course, Florida is a guarantor of sunshine but I couldn’t face it at the moment under its current regime. I would be in the assassination market myself which could prove problematic. We don’t want to let M&K down because we know they get so lonely without us but Manchester is more appealing at the moment. They’ve got Andy Burnham after all.

Music today is an old favourite that I haven’t heard for years. Last night BBC2 was devoted to Elkie Brooks and this brought back so many associations with the past. Lilac Wine, I’ve learnt today was a Song by Nina Simone from 1966. I only remember it from Elkie Brooks in 1978:

Lilac wine is sweet and heady,
Like my love
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady,
Where’s my love …?

Down at the beach this morning, I found myself singing quietly in my head with an blur of softness on my breath. Embarrassing really because the world, his wife and her dog were there drinking in the sunshine.

The coffee shop spilled out on to the beach and the sunshine. The regatta was far out on the sparkling sea and the cycles were parked up to rest in the warmth. It’s coming, Dear Reader. It’s coming.

Monday, 3rd March, 2025

Another gorgeous morning to drink in the sunshine. Went round to chat to Honda and book the car in for Friday. Spoke to a lovely, little girl on the desk who wasn’t even born when I bought my first Honda. Of course, the central locking is working flawlessly this morning. Anyway, it will all be sorted out on Friday.

Back home, I am working on a project of insurance for my data. I generate so much ‘stuff’ that I would be very upset if I lost it so Backup is essential. I use an automatic backup program so I no longer have to think about it.

Computer crashes and security infections are far less prevalent today than when I first started. In 1988, my Masters Degree Dissertation was always in danger and had to be saved on floppy disks which were easily open to corruption. By 1994, computing had moved on but hard drives were limited to 32mb and backup on floppy disks was still very vulnerable.

Just 30 years ago, hard drives were limited to 32 mb. Today, my hard drive is 1,000,000 mb or a Terabyte and houses more pictures and files than could be imagined. Of course, some are more precious than others. I received one 4 years ago today that I never want to lose. It came up in my Records Box this morning and was immediately backed up three times.

I use a cloud store – One Drive that comes with Micosoft Office-365, a local cloud store in the form of this small Terrabyte drive and I have a simple flash drive. There’s insurance and there is real insurance.

Music today is the guitar. The classical guitar of John Williams. I don’t play this too often but today I am listening to Aeolian Suite for Guitar composed and played by John Williams.

Well the day remained wall-to-wall sunshine and reached 15C/59F. Walking was warm. If I hadn’t got my Housekeeper painting, I might have set her on garden tidying instead. Still, there is time.

Tuesday, 4th March, 2025

Another glorious morning. The temperature only says 7C/45F but it feels warm in the sunshine. I’m going out for an early walk. My Housekeeper is painting and the house is invaded throughout by the smell of new paint.

The sea, on the other hand smells freshly of … sea water. It is a good and relaxing place to be. I am walking over just about 3000 miles per year. I feel fortunate not to suffer with joint problems.

A number of my fellow College friends are waiting for or recovering from Hip and knee replacements. That is not something I’m suffering from currently. I have worried that all this walking will bring those problems about but I have been reassured that walking makes them less not more likely.

The Mayo Clinic research found that the average American walks only 3,000 – 4,000 paces per day and 5000 paces should be considered a baseline to health. Although some activity is better than no activity, one should always be challenging oneself to go further. You have to constantly look for fresh ways to integrate walking.

Going to have to try this one. The Lowry Centre in Manchester has an interesting new experience inviting people to walk in to a Lowry painting. Must be worth a visit, Dear Reader. Lowry360 will be open at the beginning of May.

Walking, walking through time and memories …I’ve always loved this quote from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets:

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future ….

Music today is from Helen Shapiro (who is only 78 now) singing Walking Back to Happiness which expresses an idea so close to that of Eliot’s it is amazing. Walking back to the present is an incredible concept. It was the first ‘Pop’ song I ever heard. It was in 1961-2 and played over the tannoy of the first ever supermarket I ever went in to. It was in the Summer before I went to Grammar School where boys were already talking about The Beatles. It took me a while to catch up. Story of my life.

Just received a letter from the Le Ministère de la Transition Écologique et de la Cohésion des Territoires with our Crit’Air vignette attached which will cover us for driving in France and assure police that our car is environmentally clean.

Every time we change the car, we need to buy a new vignette because it uses the car’s VIN number. It costs less than €5.00 and it saves a fine in France so I always do it.The biggest problem is sticking it in the windscreen correctly.

Wednesday, 5th March, 2025

Unusual start to the day. Thick fog all around. Don’t often see that down here. Went down to the beach to collect a fish order and took the chance to walk by the Marina.

Quite chilly 5C/41F under the heavy sky and so different from yesterday’s sunshine. I suppose it is good to see the differing conditions but I prefer the sunshine.

My father died of a heart condition at the ridiculously young age of 49. He actually had a heart attack while he was in a hospital bed but was unable to be saved. This morning, the news carried an innovation being urged on the Labour government by experts from University College London (UCL) who report their view that a single, daily “polypill”, which includes a statin and three drugs that lower blood pressure, could be a flagship initiative to boost the Government’s drive to prevent disease.

Because of my own heart condition of Atrial Fibrillation and my family history, I have taken a handful of pills to cover cholesterol, blood pressure and anti coagulant for the past 16 years. Most of these things may now be offered to all over 50s in a combined pill which is so cheap since they have run out of licence-time. I feel fit. I don’t really worry about heart attacks and stroke any more. This combination of drugs has freed me of those concerns.

I am much more exercised by the threat of cancer. I am adequately tested for prostate cancer now. I have been regularly tested for bowel cancer but it is not automatic and I have to fight for it each time. How often should it be? I do the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening test every 2 years. I have had a colonoscopy at the same interval for the past 4 years. This morning I was told that it should be every year at my age. It was by a private testing company but their data was compelling.I may have to break the habits of a lifetime and pay for privately enhanced treatment.

Warm sunshine has returned and most things are well with the world. The days are coming when fog will lift permanently and sunshine will flow warmly. It will be a time of clarity and blue, mediterranean skies. Music today is Torna a Surriento (Come back to Sorrento) sung by Mario Lanza. If only I could, Dear Reader.

Thursday, 6th March, 2025

A delicious morning. Up early to greet our new central heating service engineer. Really nice, salt-of-the-earth lad who turned out to be a Grecophile who wanted to buy a place in Lefkada. We have been paying British Gas about £350.00 per year for their Gold Standard service. This lad used to manage a team of BG engineers and now works for himself. His service was more thorough and cost just £70.00. He’s already been booked for next year.

These are uncertain times of world destabilisation. Since the Trump-Vance attrocity with Zalensky in the Whitehouse, so many of us have carried round a heavy heart. A friend from Yorkshire sent me this yesterday which relieves the anger momentarily. Just click to play it when you need a ‘joy’ fix.

It is such a lovely day that I’m playing Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 – Pastoral. There really is nothing else on a day like today. When I go walking in the sunshine today I think it will be shorts and tee shirt for the first time for a while. Good things are coming closer and more rapidly now. Not long until May.

My old flatmate, Chris Tolley, has just heard that I am alcohol-free for 191 days. He is away in the sunshine of Lanzarote and sent me a photo to make me jealous. There are many things I want but a glass of warm lager in Lanzarote is not one of them.

The back garden is bathed in strong and hot sunshine. Chicken Stock is being made in the pressure cooker simmering away on the induction hob outside on a table, pervading the air with its distinctive smell and sending all the cats in the area wild.

The upside of Trump’s America First policy is that it throws UK back into the European sphere. However much ambiguity surrounds our government’s attempts to bridge the transatlantic gap, it is becoming clear that there is only strength in European unity and a European defence force that the Atlanticists have been denying for so long. So many of us have thought that for so long as we opposed the Brexit idiocy. It is all coming home to roost.

The Peace Dividend idea at the end of the Cold War was a reason cooked up to allow European nations to divert spending away from Defence into other channels. It was a nice idea but just plain wrong. There will always be aggressive agencies against which we have to defend ourselves. Arguments against nuclear weapons were made on cost and value. Arguments for rested on Deterence.

Boris Johnson famously argued against rearming Military Forces on the basis that it would all be hight tech. in future. He said fighting won’t involve tanks anymore. Just a couple of years later, what has been most needed by Ukraine’s Armed Forces has been Tanks. What we don’t need are the Aircraft Carriers that we bought at extortionate prices in order to support US forces in the Atlantic Ocean.

Friday, 7th March, 2025

Another lovely, warm, Spring morning. Out early to Honda to have the central locking mechanism checked and a Recall on the Fuel Injection system which they only advised us about yesterday.

We will leave the car and walk home. It is a 40 mins walk so we will walk back a couple of hours later. The walk is through the woodland surrounding us. It is still mainly dormant although buds on trees are about to wake to the Spring. This current warm spell will probably do it.

The walk there and back will amount to enough outside today and I will go on to complete my Gym routine this afternoon while my painter & decorator continues freshening up the house. It is amazing how faded the unpainted areas now look so she has inflicted a life time of work on herself equivalent to painting the Forth Bridge which they say needs restarting as soon as they get to the end.

Of course demi-gods like me have more important focusses. Diet, Health and Fitness are the centres of some of my friends mine’s thinking. My friend in Yorkshire and another in Rochdale are obsessed with something I hadn’t heard of but will investigate now. They talk about the Withings Scale from which they quote their Fitness Age.

I thought it was a chart but it turns out to be an actual set of bathroom scales which provide detailed reports of the body scan the scales perform including fat and muscle percentage, cardiovascular risk assessment, and detection of certain early signs of diabetes-related complications and vascular age.

All of this information can be deduced from scan of feet and hands each morning which is then relayed to a smartphone app. Now they’re talking my language! I am trying hard but not hard enough. All that information is a little bit scary but I think I will have to submit to it. Kevin tells me that, although he looks 80, he has a fitness age of 60. That is my target.

My Chef cooked what is turning out to be one of my favourite, healthy and delicious Suppers last night. It consisted of roast Sea Bass with pesto dressing accompanied by Portobello Mushroom stuffed with shallot and parmesan and roast Cherry Tomatoes.

Other than Muesli, this is the only meal of the day. It is accompanied by a glass of alcohol-free wine and fits well within my calorie-intake target. When you get me 7 months into this routine, I find it quite easy. The problem will be when I start to relax it. Will I be able to pull it back whenever I want to?

This morning, I’ve been invited to book the first of a two part annual health check at my Surgery. They are absolutely fantastic down here. We get appointments when we need them. Everything has been done on-line almost since we arrived 9 years ago. Results are delivered on-line to an app on my phone. The service itself is proactive as in this case. I didn’t request a health check. I was invited. When you are in your mid-70s, these things are increasingly important

While keeping up the spinning plates of my body and the car’s, I’ve chosen Take That‘s What is Love. I’ll sing along in Greek because that’s what I associated it with. You can sing in English, Dear Reader. No pressure!

Saturday, 8th March, 2025

Gorgeously warm day for early March. We are reading 17C/63F this morning in the back garden. My walk at 9.30 am was delightful being greeted by shiny, new blackbirds, sweetly voice thrushes and aggressively determined robins all jostling for space and food building up their prowess in readiness for the big love-in.

Before I go on, I have been contacted by a clever clogs who has taken issue with my solution to one of the mathematical puzzles – see Wednesday, 12th February, 2025.

A.C. Clogs says that my solution ignores the BIDMAS rule which says one should deal with multiplication before the addition. This means that the answer to this puzzle should be (4 x 6 = 24) + 3 = 27. Much as I don’t want to acknowledge it, she is right.

Today is International Women’s Day after all as my Bavarian-Australian next door neighbour has just reminded me as I returned her Hot Tub towel which had some how fallen into our garden. My wife is celebrating by being allowed to continue painting the house. I am giving her freedom by watching football and Six Nations Rugby. We all have to make sacrifices!

I’ve also been enjoying exploring the 1911 and 1921 Census releases this morning. They are providing lots of lovely information going back to the early 1800s. Interestingly and rather disappointingly, I thought my Mother’s family had closer ties with Ireland than they did.

Neither my Grandparents nor my Great Grandparents were born in Ireland so the connections really do go a long way back. No chance of me claiming EU identity via my ancestors unfortunately. I will have to rely on Labour taking me back in and Trump making them go faster than they want.

I was supporting Ireland against France this afternoon but it didn’t go right. The French were just too good in the Spring sunshine. Haven’t had time for music today.

Sunday, 23th February, 2025

A beautiful morning. I had an empty sadness inside me yesterday. This morning renewed my optimism that all will go well and that I will achieve my ultimate goals. Blue sky, warm and bright is definitely a harbinger of things to come.

………. Blue-eyed May
Shall soon behold this border thickly set
With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

William Wordsworth – To a Snowdrop – 1820

Obviously, the effects of Global Warming have advanced the time of Spring considerably over the past 200 years and the difference between the Lake District of Northern England and the sheltered coastal temperatures of West Sussex contribute but these harbingers of Spring are out here at least two months earlier than Wordsworth’s 19th Century Cumbria.

It is a morning of domesticity. I am having my haircut in the Kitchen after I’ve done a 90 mins walk. I have a live-in Barber who actually doubles up as a Chef and Housekeeper. Chef has produced a huge batch of Meat Sauce for one of my favourite meals – Stuffed Peppers / Πιπεριές Γεμιστές. I think this pan will do 6 meals for two people unless you drop in, Dear Reader.

If you are a regular reader of the Blog, you will know that I have been drifting from Left to Right on the Nature v Nurture debate. The Right tend to argue that bloodline and genes are predominate determinates of generation. The Left tend to deny that and argue that privilege of circumstance is what makes the main difference. Levelling up would raise the Health and Physical Wealth of the less fortunate.

I was brought up in a Right Wing family but educated in a Left Wing milieu. I grew up on the belief that amelioration of Nature particularly through compensatory education was the way to improve the world. In later life, I’ve been alarmed to find how many physical attributes are common throughout my family. Now, the Sunday Times reports research with a re-balancing of that argument. Socioeconomic status – your post code and associated affluence which is all tied into your level of education and cultural choices – is by far the most influential factor on longevity. It doesn’t mean that no poor people live to great ages just that the likelihood is less.

Music for this Sunday morning, while the devout are at prayer, is the Debussy – Cello Sonata which was written at the start of World War One and is guaranteed to make life more enjoyable if not any longer.

Monday, 24th February, 2025

A dark early morning of heavy rain has miraculously brightened up by 9.30 am. It is very warm. I’m tired. I didn’t sleep well. I never dream but I’ve been dreaming. In spite of this, I’ve got to get my exercise done. These are the most important days when I have to drive myself through the crisis.

This week marks 6 months without any alcohol. It is the longest spell I have done since 1973. I would like to say I feel good about it -feel better for it. It wouldn’t really be true. I am pleased to reassert my self-discipline. I’m sure it has allowed my liver to breathe a sigh of relief although my doctor told me last year it was in excellent condition. It has definitely helped me in my struggle to lose weight and regain fitness. Both of those goals are well on target. I have a date in May in my mind that I am aiming for. Another 12 weeks.

I am trying to keep myself occupied physically. Having completed my travel planning and bookings for the year with a few gaps to slot extra bits in, I am turning to the garden over the next few weeks. Soon the lawns will need reviving as they welcome the Spring warmth. Moss killer and weed & feed applied to boost them after quite a wet Winter. I am about to order hundreds of ‘plug’ plants to grow on for planting out.

It is a cheap way to produce hundreds of plants without needing to germinate them all myself. They will arrive at the beginning of April and be potted up into my cold frames. They will go out into the beds in late May to flower all Summer while I am away. My neighbours will get instructions on how to look after them.

Music today is from the Moody Blues – On the Threshold of a Dream: Lovely to See You. Haven’t heard it for years. Sounds dated but I suppose I am. It’s strange but part of me utterly rejects the past for its taint with aging yet part of me longs to dive back into it – to understand it with the perspective of distance. It’s probably quite natural but it fascinates me.

I’m absolutely loving my Gym workout each day at the moment. I can’t wait to get in there. I’m watching an Anglo-American Spy drama over 96 episodes which I resisted for a long time but finally re-tried and it is brilliant. I am utterly hooked.

I find myself completing my routine but forcing myself to go further just to finish an episode. It is really topical and involves Israeli prisoners of war, Al Quaeda, Afghanistan, Russia and a change of American President. What more could you want? I love the irony that I have to subscribe to Disney Channel to watch it. This alone is worth the £5.00 a month subscription.

Tuesday, 25th February, 2025

February is sliding rapidly away. March is marching closer. The Spring is on our doorstep. These are the waves of time flowing back and forth on the beach of our lives, each time getting closer before retreating to reveal our past.

If you are my age, Dear Reader, the death of Roberta Flack yesterday will not have passed you by unnoticed. I was no great fan of Soul Music, as I think it was called, but songs like The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (1969) and Killing Me Softly (1973) are part of the fabric of my youth and so chimed with stages of my life that they will always be significant. She lived to 88 but died of a nightmare illness – Motor Neuron Disease. Nothing in life is simple or easy in the end but we have to bear it.

Energy prices are rising again and we have to bear those as well. Interesting article in The Telegraph this morning about how retirees are escaping to warmer climes to save on heating bills. Now that’s an idea, Dear Reader. What do you think?

About 40 years ago, I went to Cyprus in the Winter to enjoy some extra warmth. I hired a car and explored the southern half of the island. It was interesting and enjoyable but not the Greek experience I had been hoping for. I haven’t been back. The article this morning was suggesting that I reconsider and I will.

Around 1985, I stayed in an almost empty area called Protaras. It is quite developed now. I drove to Larnaca and Paphos. I drove from the sunny beaches of Paralimni up the Troodos Mountains region into heavy snow. I drove to the Famagusta checkpoint to look over the fence between Greek and Turkish Cyprus.

I am already looking for a rental property for the month of February next year in Paralimni, South East Cyprus. One of the first that came up suggests I was always destined to return.

It might be a bit big but would be worth it for the name alone. I will have to invite a bunch of friends … if you are up for it, Dear Reader.

Wednesday, 26th February, 2025

Wet and warm, grey and depressing. What to do with today? I am acknowledging 16 years and 6 months today. It was 16 years ago today, at the tender age of 57, that I learned I had an irregular heart beat. Medically, it is called Atriall Fibrilation. Crudely, it means that my heart stops and starts spasmodically, allows the blood to pool in the ventricles of the heart where it can coagulate and pulse clots around the body causing strokes and heart attacks.

I must admit that, in retrospect, I probably suffered from this for years before it was diagnosed. As an athlete and a rugby player in the late 1960s, I put heart palpitations and and feeling light headed down to pushing myself too hard, being short of oxygen, being muscle fatigued. Looking back, I think it was probably irregular heart beat.

Anyway, for the past 16 years I have been dosing myself each morning with rat poison. I take Warfarin which prevents my blood coagulating and therefore clots don’t form to develop catastrophic consequences through circulation. In rat poison, the doses are so high that the rats ingest that their blood circulation is so fluid their bodies explode.

In human sufferers, dosage is closely controlled by medical experts. Hospitals have specialist Departments of Anticoagulation for just this process. I report to one in Worthing every couple of months. We communicate by email. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford my own testing machine and don’t have to physically attend a clinic which is so inconvenient for most. Even so, from the moment I was diagnosed, all my prescriptions even those unassociated were free. I used to really worry about the condition but these days, I am relaxed and on top of it. I test myself weekly and maintain a spreadsheet which is now 16 years long. I never give up!

Six months without alcohol. I think that’s worthy of at least a round of applause. Now walking a minimum of 8 miles a day but actually nearer 60 miles a week. I’m feeling so much better, so much heathier. I know there are somethings I still need to reclaim and I will but music is back in my life after all this time finding it almost unbearable. Today, I am listening to the magnificent Jacqueline du Pré playing Elgar’s Cello Concerto  in E minor composed at the end of the First World War.

Thursday, 27th February, 2025

Gorgeous morning. A little bit cooler than recently but blue sky and sunshine. Eyes drink in the light. If you haven’t got it, I wish I could share it with you, Dear Reader.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is a book written by American author and relationship counsellor in the 1990s. Mars is a sign of bravery, aggression and a quality of being strong. Venus is a sign of love, beauty, kindness. Stereotypes are wonderful aren’t they? And plain wrong. It may have sold books but it doesn’t really inform the science of relationship advice. It is too reductive even if it still has some basis in reality. I can be brave, strong, aggressive but I can also be a soft mess. Over all, my experience is that women are stronger and harder headed.

Retirement can be boring after a while and we all look for distractions. We shop and we travel. I shop for technology and my wife shops for clothes. We meet over food and travel. One of the great things is that we don’t have to actually go to shops any more, the shops come to us and they do …. almost daily. This morning I am going to Saint + Sofia in Covent Garden (by proxy) to return a pair of Venus trousers and reclaim £160.00 for my bank account. All I do is print out a label and good things happen.

Ten years ago, I was shopping in Maplin Electronics for memory cards. Now there is no shop left across the country. They went into administration in 2018 and now only trade on-line … and why not. Work from home is a great idea. All teachers should do it.

My live in House Decorator has been tasked with repainting all the internal doors. After 9 years of life and being pounded with strong sunshine, retouching is no longer feasible so all 8 ground floor doors and surrounds are being totally repainted. She needs a project and there it is. As a result, we have made a trip to Wickes this morning for brushes, rollers, paint and White Spirit and Masking Tape. Over the next couple of weeks the house will be renewed.

My job is to complete my fitness regime each day and continue research for a holiday rental in Cyprus for the month of February 2026. No time like the present and someone has to do it. The one above is fantastic value at just £3,200.00 for four weeks replacing UK winter with Mediterranean warmth. What’s not to like?

To keep me company, I have Pavarotti singing Libiamo ne’ lieti calici from Verdi’s La Traviata. Even my Painter & Decorator is singing along. It is an old favourite with so many opera lovers who pretend they can sing whereas Pavarotti is effortlessly sublime … rather like me in the shower.

Friday, 28th February, 2025

Today marks the end of Winter by the meteorological calendar but we’ve got four more weeks until the clocks go forward. Still, the day is glorious with cloudless blue sky and strong sunshine. My Housekeeper doesn’t care what day it is. For her, it is another day of self-indulgence. A constant round of Beauty treatments, new clothes and, this morning, the Hairdressers. Friday seems to be popular.

Went down to the beach where the temperature was a lovely 14C/57F with the tide gently lapping on the turn and hardly a soul in sight.

You only have to bathe in the warmth, listen to the sounds and watch the mesmerising movement of the sea to know life is worth living. It is really reviving. Came away feeling better about life and more determined than ever to succeed. Not long until May.

All eyes yesterday were on America and the Starmer-Trump meeting. The lawyer prepared well and the egoist fell for the preparatory work. All the media with the exception of the ultra right wing Express had to hand it to Starmer. Even the Murdock Times (above) gave praise.

I’ve got the sounds of the sea still playing in my head throughout the morning. So the music I’ve chosen today is from Fleetwood Mac: Albatross. Delicious chords which so echo the sounds of the sea, the lapping of the waves, the dragging of the shells back into the water.

It is so lovely to live here and have this on our doorstep but it will never rival the Mediterranean for me. I will spend the rest of my life exploring shores heated and exposed by the searing heat and blinding sunshine of Mediterranean skies. I can hardly wait for my next visit.

Saturday, 1st March, 2025

Happy new month, Dear Reader. Happy March 2025 and welcome the Spring. It’s certainly bringing gorgeous, warm – 14C/57F – sunshine and blue skies with it this Saturday. Outside on an early walk, the trees and hedgerows were alive with birds looking for friends with benefits to access the gene pool and extend the species. Flowers and buds on bushes are breaking in the bright warmth preparing for the season.

Music today is the delightful Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.5, ‘Spring Sonata’. It is a time of heart raising expectation and joy to come. And there is joy to come, Dear Reader. Life is rejuvenated and reborn. Let’s hope we are too.

Met our neighbours out walking. They have two girls now aged 18 and 16. Each are doing exams this Summer and the elder one preparing to go off to university in September. When we moved in to our new house they were both at Primary School. It is a shock to reaslise how time has moved on in the light of that fact. It’s a shock for parents as well, of course. It reminds us all how old we are.

I’ve owned Honda cars since my first one in 1984. In that time, I have bought more than 20 of them from new. I have virtually never had a problem with any of them although I didn’t keep one more than two years. Yesterday, I developed a central locking problem on the front passenger door and it has to be looked at on Monday.

Actually, I first found out when my Honda App showed all doors, sunroof and windows were locked with the exception of the passenger door. When I checked that was locked as well. So there is an electrical facility problem which I can’t solve.

For that reason, I am going to give the car a full valet in the sunshine in readiness for taking it in on Monday. I am always reminded that when I took my Honda Accord in for its first service in 1984, the Honda desk mildly rebuked me for delivering such a dirty vehicle. They said they provided every customer with free cleaning kits because their vehicles were their adverisements and had to look good always.

I took that rebuke to heart even though I had given them the princely sum of about £7,400.00 and was rather shocked by their response. I have always tried hard since then.

Well, if you are a Democrat and you didn’t go to bed and get up this morning with that obscene scene palyed out in the Whitehouse last night then perhaps you were not paying attention. It has dominated my thoughts since yesterday evening and it fully justifies the opprobrium heaped on that attrocious, attention-seeking, orange man-baby as he abused the President of a European, democratic country. It was utterly appalling but it has to unite Europe in opposition.

The most astonishing thing has happened. I’ve cleaned the car from top to bottom, inside and out. It is ready for inspection on Monday morning. The only thing is that the central locking problem has disappeared completely. I am amazed. I only cleaned it.

Sunday, 16th February, 2025

It’s all downhill from here for February and for life. For me, the morning routines started badly. My shaver refused to pair with my smartphone. Disaster. How can you shave without a phone? I have a Philips Shaver with which I use an app called Groom Tribe. So that set me back. It records all my shaving stats going back to 2023. I’ve got it all back now but it was a hairy moment. (See what I did there?)

Downstairs for orange juice, tea and coffee while I catch up with the goals from Match of the Day yesterday. The Sky Q Box in the Kitchen had disconnected itself over night. That had to be reconnected.

Out early for a 90 mins walk in quite cold temperatures. It is only 4C/39F which is hardly exotic. It is dry and forecast to be dry all week. Driving up to Surrey at mid day taking some new phones and a huge bag of sweets along with a massive batch of freshly baked scones plus a huge pile of freshly baked Oven Bottom Muffins which the ex-Oldhamers miss.

Hopefully, the roads will not be too busy on a Sunday. Who goes anywhere on a Sunday? I’ve had to teach myself the installation of the new phones which are VOIP or voice-over-internet-protocol which everybody with a landline is being moved to. Basicaslly, the line connection can no longer be called ‘Land’ because it isn’t. Everything comes across the internet so the handset has to be plugged into the BT Hub or connected via WiFi. This is one of the reasons that I’ve given up our landline. It just duplicates our mobiles which themselves come through WiFi when we are in the house because the connection to the 5G signal is so weak inside.

Music today is playing in my head as I walk. It is from the fantastic Verdi opera, Nabucco. The title comes from a short version of Nabucodonosor (English: “Nebuchadnezzar) The opera follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian king Nabucco. The piece I replay in my head is the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves: Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate. / Fly, thought, on golden wings.

Had a wonderful political podcast about the infighting in the Labour Party/Government as I drove this morning. The time and the miles melted away. I was in it. I wanted to be in the middle of it. If I come back in another life, there are a number of things I will do better and differently. Involvement in politics is one of those areas I would think about earlier.

When we’ve done our good deed for the day, it will be an hour or so home hopefully in time for the Man. Utd clash with Spurs. I’ll watch it while doing my workout in the Gym. Well, I did my work out but United didn’t perform their side of the bargain. They are a long way off achieving anything.

I was part of a tiny, select group of lads at my College who developed an identity because we were the first. Gradually, each member of the subsequently disparate group have been relocated and I got home today to find the final missing member has been gathered in. Charles was rather an outsider who sat in the Common Room and played impromptu classical guitar to all who would stay to watch. His girlfriend was named Winsome which quckly led to the quip, You Winsome and you lose some.

Monday, 17th February, 2025

Lovely day with blue sky and sunshine. Almost made me think about the garden although, on second thoughts, I’ll give it a couple more weeks. Bins out this morning. I am the bin man this week. I have 5 sets of bins to put out and back later. So many of my neighbours are away on Half Term holidays even though most do not have kids. Any excuse and it seems like Dubai is the popular destination this year. I suspect they’ll all meet up for a street party when they get there. Anyway, I am still here – just waiting – but my time will come. The window cleaner has arrived and then we go out for a walk.

Later, my Housekeeper will be painting touch-up areas and I will be in the Gym. I’m going to restart my rowing regime today and build it up over the next couple of months. Our walk takes us out of our Development and through a park which borders an older Development from some 20 years ago. The tree planting is quite mature now and the trees are pollarded every couple of years. The Parks & Gardens were on it today. The results are stark but grow back so quickly that the results will be majestic by September.

One of the stipulations on our development in 2016 was that there should be lots of open, green space and that mature trees should be left wherever possible. This beautifully mature tree survived the build as it should have done. Even in its skeleton structure, it looks impressive this morning.

As a post-war Boomer who never had kids, I am fascinated by following generations and their attitudes to the world. We are all partially shaped by the environment of our childhood. Twenty years ago, The Times published a study of the social attitudes of Millenials. This morning, they feature an interesting comparative study into the social attitudes of GenZ. These are its key findings:

I have to say that I echo quite a lot of them. I think UK is racist. I would be disinclined to fight for such a country. I do think UK is largely stuck in the past. I would happily have chosen working from home in my career. I don’t really have a view on casual sex or on transgender. I have always drunk alcohol and virtually never touched drugs but I don’t really object to others doing it.

Being in debt in my youth was something I saw as a good thing. When I owed more than £250,000 to a bank, I always saw it as an investment that would pay back double and it did. They do seem rather less inclined to take a risk than I was. Maybe that comes down to education more than anything else.

Music today is deliberately going with a composer I’ve always found ‘difficult’. I know I am supposed to like/admire/enjoy Mozart but I have never found him easy. Today, I am forcing myself to listen to Mozart: Andante in C Major and it is starting to win me back. You should try it, Dear Reader. You might understand it quicker than me.

Tuesday, 18th February, 2025

What a gorgeous morning. We are reading 9C/48F but the sunshine makes it feel warmer. Going down to the fish shop on the harbour to buy locally caught cod and swordfish. The morning started weirdly with a call to BT. Change is always difficult and sometimes fraught. The other day, I had a phone call from BT who I buy Broadband and Landline from and have done for 25 years. BT have joined forces with EE who I have two mobile contracts with. They have been having service integration problems.

I was moved from BT to EE for their Broadband provision a few months ago. They sent me all the new equipment. I have it up and running well. Last week, a nervous BT office called me and tried to get me to re-sign another 2 year contact 6 months early. I thought it was strange at the time but I agreed. I told them I wanted my Landline taking off it because it was no longer useful. I was told it would disappear yesterday. When it didn’t, I phoned them this morning to be told that they had no knowledge of it.

New research published this morning commissioned by Recycle Your Electricals found that nearly 40% of UK homes keep their small electrical connectors and chargers in a ‘drawer of doom’ just in case they are ever needed. I am one of that 40%. This morning I scrapped a full set of 6 landline phones. Even having read the research, I hesitated over whether to store them in my Drawer of Doom in the filing cabinet or just bin them. I fought hard with my instincts and binned them but it was touch and go.

Music today is … (Hold your breath in astonishment!) … Take That: The Garden. I like the song but, particularly, I like it for the words – the quality of lyrics like this:

Everyone, everyone, can you hear the soldiers coming?
And everyone, everyone, every man and every woman
We all fall in the end, we’re just miracles of matter
So come on let me love you ….

I like it because it’s sung by a lad from Oldham in identifiably Oldham cadences. It takes me back. I especially like it because it plays on the theme of a poem from the mid 17th Century written by Andrew Marvell: To His Coy Mistress.

Had we but world enough and time
This coyness, lady, were no crime

Basically, Marvell is trying to get his love into bed but she is playing hard to get. He is saying that they don’t have time to mess around. Time is short. The Garden is doing exactly that. The soldiers of time are constantly marching nearer. Before they arrive, let me make love to you. It is an eternal theme.

Wednesday, 19th February, 2025

Some respite from the cold has arrived. It is noticeably warmer and will get warmer still over night. That’s a positive sign which will encourage the daffodils and the birds. I am dreaming, dreaming of real warmth in the future. I know I will make those dreams come true. I’m preparing for it right now.

There is always one good moment in the calendar for February each year. That is when my little brother, Bob, catches me up. Just 10 months apart (That’s fecund Catholics for you!), Bob is 73 today and we wish him Happy Birthday.

I’m finding it hard to listen to the News since Trump took power. The World is going to hell as he thinks he can trample on the dreams of the Ukranians and the Palestinians. Their dreams of freedom are just that and nothing more as the unprincipled autocrat surveys the world stage. To hear his view this morning that Ukraine invaded Russia not the reverse and that the only settlement will mean ceding their territory to their enemy is obscene and insane. If the West don’t stand up now, they never will.

What it will do, is push the UK back towards European integration again. It may start in Defence but already people are begining to see that back in Europe will be our ultimate destination. I’m all for it and still can’t understand the thoughtless, Brexit drive.

Europe needs Ukraine inside the family of EU nations and Nato defences. It has long been a dream or ambition. Ambitions are important. They inform our actions in the now as we move purposefully towards the future. We have for too long rested on our laurels, indulged ourselves in the peace dividend by deluding ourselves about Russia. Now we have to bite the bullet (literally) and divert spending into positive defence. There is no other way and that is one thing we can agree with Trump on. We cannot rely on the US to fight our battles for us.

Seems a little incongruous but music today is about dreams. It is actually Dreams from Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album, Rumours. It is my one of my wife’s favourite albums and I have grown to enjoy it with the familiarity of her regular playing of it. The one thing you can really know about her is that she is not GenZ. She is utterly a Boomer. A piece of research which I found amusing came out yesterday. It listed some distinctly GenZ habits/attitudes with which to measure the rest of us.

If you’ve ever been told you’re showing your age just by doing something completely normal, congratulations — you’ve officially been called ‘old’ by Gen Z. These include:

• Using a landline
• Owning DVDs or physical media
• Taking photos of everything instead of just enjoying the moment
• Paying with cash
• Wearing skinny jeans
•  Leaving voicemails
• Using the “crying laughing” emoji

In my quest to be ‘younger’, I’ve ditched my landline. I only own DVDs because I can’t face throwing things away but I never play them. Everything is digital now. I am guilty of taking lots of photographs and not being able to just enjoy the moment. I never pay with cash and haven’t for years. I have never worn skinny jeans in my life. I rarely leave voicemails mainly because I think I sound uncomfortable. I try not to use the “crying laughing” emoji although lots of my friends do so I feel pressured to use them in reply.

Thursday, 20th February, 2025

Strange global warming taking place. This morning we are 12C/54F while Athens is half that. Manchester was even warmer. Doesn’t seem right but that’s levelling up for you. It’s warmer but cloudier and wetter. Just to cheer myself up, I have chosen Bellissime Stelle (Beautiful Starry Sky) as my music for this morning. Lovely words ….

Verrai, verrai,
Dovunque arriverai:
Sei pioggia che gonfia le fontane.
Cadrai, cadrai, sul fondo scenderai
nell’anima che scalda gli occhi miei
e ancora ti vorrei.

It is two years ago this week that I was going for a biopsy that found I had an aggressive cancer in my prostate and exactly a year ago I was preparing for a second colonoscopy of my lifetime. The former was erradicated for now and I get lifetime bi-annual monitoring. The latter was clear after some concerns from the first one. My health appears to be excellent at the moment.

I have had a lifetime of dieting and have always been prone to putting on weight since I gave up playing competitive sport. I have always been too inclined to self indulgence and have always fought for a larger slice of the pie in all spheres of life. I am my own worst enemy, I know. And then I beat myself up about it and I have massive determination to do something about it. In a few days, I will mark being alcohol-free for 6 months. I will have walked 8 miles a day every day with one exception in that time and survived on 1500 calories a day. There aren’t many people who can do this but it becomes a way of life to the point that, when I eat something, I instantly regret it because I crave that ’empty’ feeling.

In the past, my substitute flavour drink was the awful Shloer which has that dreadful artificial sweetener background. In the past 6 months I have been drinking far superior products: Alcohol -free wine with Supper and Tonic-based drinks from Fever-Tree during the day. These three are my favourites and the Spanish Clementine in particular. They are low in calories and high in flavour. They get me through the hard times …. well, some of them.

In Sainsbury’s this morning, I was walking out when I saw an old chap looking at the display of seed packets for sale. He was reading the French Beans. I just casually asked in passing, Are you starting this early? I got chapter and verse about his age, health and life experience. He turned out to be 89 years old and he was thinking about sowing climbing beans this year. The problem is his hip. He needs a hip replacement and he has been told his heart wouldn’t survive the operation. It makes him sad. He only gave up riding his motorbike 6 months ago. Aging and decline is a terribly sad thing and we must resist it with all our determination. I’m going to. Are you, Dear Reader? Always on my mind ….

Friday, 21st February, 2025

Spring morning. Warm and breezy. Out early to the Health Food shop on the High Street – Grape Tree. I wanted to get ingredients for Museli. One bowl of that fills me and gets me through the day until Supper.

I know it sounds esoteric and nerdy but I don’t take it far. They have a mix of Oats, Wheat and Barley which I fancied trying plus some flaked nuts and chopped fruit which I already buy. When you’re on a diet, fibre is an essential component and I find oats swell in my stomach and keep me full for longer.

I’m rather getting to like chopped papayer and pineapple along with golden sultanas, flaked almonds and coconut combined with ice-cold fat-free milk at mid day.

Out for a walk at the beach, a stiff off shore breeze made it feel colder than it was. The last real day of Half Term was quite quiet. But Spring is definitely coming. You can feel it straining at the edges. Buds on trees, birds in trees and even bulbs forcing their way through the ground to meet the daylight. So, today’s music is Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

No need for heating. I even went out without a coat although that didn’t make it pleasant on the shore path. I suppose we have a long way to go until we can rely on the warmth but it is defintely coming. Hang on, Dear Reader. See you in May when everything will be warmer.

Saturday, 22nd February, 2025

Warm and grey with damp air. Not a day to be sunbathing. We are 12C, Manchester 7C and Athens 6C. Fascinating reversals. Today will be a Sport one. England v Scotland Rugby. Everton v United Football. Of course, I’ve got my own targets to achieve with a walk and the Gym.

Hundreds of Gulls were swarming from side to side of the parkland, searching for food. They are like air-rats. Ironically, by the time I had completed my walk, the sun had broken through. For the first time in weeks, I was sweating in a fleece. Soon time for shorts and tee shirt. Can’t wait!

One of the problems with a long marriage and I’ve been married for 46 years (Incredible just writing it.) is that we each take on tasks to the exclusion of the other. My wife’s iPad had a wifi problem over the past few days. There is only one person in this relationship who can fix that and it is not her. Whereas, I don’t even think about washing and ironing clothes, I’m just told when it will happen and the wardrobes are repopulated with fresh and ironed clothes. Fortunately, she loves her latest iron which is almost larger than her and makes the process quick and enjoyable …. I’m told.

We get into some so entrenched patters of responsibility that, as someone said to me the other day about there husband, I don’t know how he would manage without me. It is a dangerous position to be in. My wife woke thinking about how she would cope on her own if she had problems with the internet, her computer equipment, the Sky delivery service, the internet-based heating controls, the car settings, etc. She’s obviously anticipating a change of situation.

I would seriously struggle to use the Dishwasher, Tumble Dryer and Washing Machines on my own. I even struggle with the top oven of our two and the multitude of facilities it offers.

Sunday, 9th February, 2025

A grey but brightening morning. Going out for a walk early because rain is forecast. A fairly ‘free’ day today. Newspapers to read and Political programmes to watch, friends to communicate with and exercise to do. You could describe it as ’empty’. I don’t like empty. My Housekeeper will be busy preparing to repaint areas of the house showing wear and tear. That is all beyond me so I am the supporting act.

I am very risk-averse. I am insured up to the hilt for every eventuality. I hardly ever claim but it makes life calmer and more assured (literally). The best car, travel and home insurance possible is a must in our household. Today, we have to reconsider House & Contents Insurance which we have been buying from the same company since we moved in here 9 years ago. Privilege have been our insurers and last year they charged us £355.00 for both Buildings & Contents cover. The renewal price this time is £535.00 which is quite a rise so research is required.

You never know who you are dealing with when comparing quotes but a quick check shows Privilege insurance policies are underwritten by UK Insurance Limited, who own the brands Privilege, Direct Line, Churchill and Green Flag. They often try to hike the cost and we find alternatives to use as a bargaining chip and they usually back down. Be interesting to see if they stick to this 50% increase. It’s certainly one of these things that winds you up and demands all sorts of time consuming things like calculating the surface area of your house, measuring how far the nearest tree is too it, how much the entire contents would take to replace, how many items costing over £1000.00 you need to insure separately, etc.. I suspect many people give up and plump for round figures. Not in this Office!

Bésame, bésame mucho
Como si fuera esta noche
La última vez
Bésame, bésame mucho
Que tengo miedo perderte
Perderte después

To soothe the savage, inflamed breast, music today is another Andrea Bocelli singing in Spanish: Bésame Mucho (Kiss me a lot.) I got addicted to this song before I translated it and the Spanish is so beautiful. I wish I’d persisted with it in Grammar School. I chose it over Russian at the time but dropped it for other things before I had really learnt enough.

Monday, 10th February, 2025

Another cool, grey and damp morning. I have an appointment with the Hygenist at the Dentists at 9.00 am so there is no time to waste. I hate the Hygenist with a passion – not the person but the process. I sometimes wonder why I volunteer to pay for it.

My poor next door neighbour has to go to work this morning knowing that Ofsted are in. She is a lecturer in English at the local College. All weekend she has been receiving emails from Senior Management reminding her what a wonderful institution she works in and with such a wonderfully understanding Management Team that she should impress that on Inspectors. Poor girl. I really do feel for her. I’ve offered to go in an and deliver a few lectures if she needs a break. You never lose it, you know.

When I go travelling, it is almost always conditioned by weather. I like the sun and warmth above all. Language, culture, sights are important but secondary. France, Italy, Greece, Spain provide so many of my requirements. I never think of Wales in that way. This morning I listened to an interview with Helle Thorning-Schmidt. She is the former Prime Minister of Denmark and the current wife of Neil Kinnock’s son, Stephen. She also sits on the advisory board of Meta/Facebook.

She talked about her new found love of Wales in general and Angelesey in particular. It reminded me that Mum & Dad loved Wales and took us across the Menai Bridge to Angelesey for a holiday. I was too young to remember much about it but I have always associated North Wales with two things – rain and old fashioned travel. Perhaps I am going to have to rethink, retrace and reassess. Might have to reacquaint myself with Angelsey.

I don’t think my acquaintance will merit learning Welsh but I fell heavily for a Welsh actress, Eve Myles and a Welsh drama, Keeping Faith, originally made for S4C in Welsh. About 5 years ago the drama gripped me and the accompanying songs composed by Amy Wadge have absolutely hung in my head ever since. Today’s music is Faith’s Song – perhaps the best and most insistent of them. I crumple under it.

Tuesday, 11th February, 2025

Birthdays are strange things, aren’t they. If you believe time moves in a straight line and I do then we all travel forwards from the Mother Ship to our final destination in a linear direction.

“They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.”

― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Like roads in metres and kilometres, Lives are graduated in months and years. Along the road to our destination, we can take temporary detours but the final destination is always the same. All the lives we meet along the road are shed and we are all alone in death.

Thought you would like an uplifting theme for the morning and, to accompany it, an equally uplifting piece of music – Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor – which to the initiated will be depressingly appropriate. It is wonderful music in its own right but we cannot divorce it from common association.

The difference is that Christians seem to believe they go upwards at death whereas all the evidence seems to point the other way: They give birth astride of a grave. Ascension in to heaven is literally an aspiration which has no basis in reality. Self delusion rules.

The real question is about timing and duration. Can we intervene to slow the time or extend the duration? Are there things we can do or are we kidding ourselves. We have to believe that we can or life is meaningless. I often think I am juggling plates of performance. Yesterday my teeth passed the test. This morning by INR was excellent. My weight is coming into line. My fitness is good. My blood pressure is good and my cholesterol levels are excellent.

I still look to improve my balance, suppleness, and muscle degeneration. I constantly try to keep my brain alert and my emotions in check. I look for ways to test my abilities all the time. Yesterday in an idle moment while I was recovering from my Gym workout, I did an IQ Test online. I really enjoyed it. It was largely centred around sequential patterns of number or space and they are things I’ve always been good at.

These two tests are really the easiest starters before the real work begins. Try them, Dear Reader. Answers tomorrow … if you’re still alive.

Wednesday, 12th February, 2025

Another grey morning. I am heartily sick of greyness. Turn on the light! Give me sunshine! Now! Look to the Future …. It’s going to be warm and sunny. In the mean time, we have to grind out the self improvement programme. The diet and exercise routine continue and the house renewal starts today. All the little scuff marks are being photographed and noted ready for repainting/touching up by my Housekeeper. She has to get her pleasure somewhere.

Place has rarely been important to me. I have an inner life that makes it less relevant than to some other people I know. I like where I live. I particularly like it in the sunshine and we do get a lot of it normally but people are more important really. The Telegraph ran a feature on the Home Counties this morning and I was surprised to find they included East & West Sussex but not Surrey. They say they consulted legal documents.

Worthing was included and the new, restaurant on the pier – Tern run by Michelin star chef, Jonny Stanford who originated in Manchester. I love the way geographical connections run through life’s story. Try as I might, I can never get them out of me.

For years, this was the time I would be planning, researching, booking the return to our home in Greece. I dug out a plan I did for our trip 15 years ago today. I was only 58 for one thing. I had been retired for almost a year. I was still living in cold Yorkshire.

I loved the journey almost as much as the 6 months away. I loved the drive and, in retirement, it was so much more relaxed allowing us to take more time and have a number hotel stops on the way. I have never regretted these experiences. They made me a better person.

You light the skies, up above me
A star, so bright, you blind me,
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t fade away, don’t fade away, oh

Music today may be quite surprising but it reminds me of that drive. It took many hours across many country’s borders where we didn’t have to show our passports because we were EU members. To wile away the time, I listened to and sang to a range of music from  La Traviata to Take That‘s greatest hits. This morning, to fit in with the travel and place theme, I chose We Can Rule the World and I was singing along in the Office but, in my head, I was back on the road driving from Colmar in France to Modena in Italy – a day’s journey of about 6 long hours.

I’m sure you managed yesterday’s puzzles easily but, at the risk of appearing patronising, this is how the working went.

Thursday, 13th February, 2025

Another grey day which would be depressing if it wasn’t for the relativity of life. Two separate friends in North Yorkshire: one suffers from and is currently suffering from SAD Syndrome; the other has been diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time in the same breast. Puts my life into perspective.

One of the things I need at the moment is a new suit. I don’t wear them so often now. They were my school uniform once but every man needs a few good suits for the right occasion. I have been looking at Brook Taverner online. Never bought a suit online before. I had mine made to measure in little, specialist Tailor Shops. Will be interesting. Bet I have to have the arms shortened.

The research into House Insurance went well. My Housekeeper is proposing to switch insurers for a better policy but £150.00 cheaper. I’ll put that towards my new suit. We will move to Admiral who will allow us to be away for at least 60 consecutive days which is something we will need over the next 12 months.

Fifteen years ago, I was booking this hotel in Parma, Italy for our drive to Greece. The manager is called Elvis and the hotel is no great luxury but good enough for one night on the way. To be honest with you, almost anywhere is good in Italy. This morning I was acknowledging my neighbour across the road – Filippo from Parma, Italy. It’s a small world. Music today is from the wonderful Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini who was born in our favourite Italian city of Lucca. I know there are many more interesting pieces but why not play the classically populist card for once: Nessun Dorma or None Shall Sleep.

In the Gym today, I am going to start a new focus on Strength Excercises. I can’t drop my Cardio targets but I’ve got to integrate some strength work as well. There are lots of execises to choose from. I have a professional Rowing Machine so that will be one of them and I have some Dumbbells so I will do some Bicep Curls.

Ask anyone under the age of 40 and you are likely to find they don’t have a landline in their house. They have a mobile and use it exclusively. People over 40 tend to be in the graduated phase of mixing both landline and mobile phones. Those in their 80s tend to mainly use the old fashioned ways. We have two mobiles and a landline with 6 handsets around the house.

Discussing it the other day, we realised we hadn’t used the landline for ages other than to shout at cold-callers. We decided to do a month where we never attempted to use our landline. It turned out to be no problem. We have unlimited calls through both systems so they really were duplicating each other. Today, I cancelled my landline and saved myself the massive sum of £120.00 per year. This is at just the time when I have ordered some big button cordless landline phones for a relative with poor sight. Everyone needs something different.

Friday, 14th February, 2025

Happy Valentine’s Day …. again. Seems to come round every year. I am so romantic that I’m driving my wife to the Beautician’s to have her face renovated. Apparently, she is going to have it defoliated by using needles with electric pulses. It costs a fortune compared with a plastic, Bic Safety Razor. You can buy a pack of 5 for £0.99. I must tell her how to banish that stubble. Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day to all my readers. Make the most of it. Doesn’t last long like all good things.

My music this morning is unashamedly down with the kids. It has to be a love song, of course. I actually quite like it: Ed Sheeran – Perfect. He is an interesting character with an interesting voice and it illustrates my ability to break out of my own conventions.

Another trip to the old sweet shop – Bah Humbug – today because we are driving up to Surrey on Sunday with a set of phones to be installed and C has managed to get through his first Kilo in quick time. Got to keep the old natives happy. In the meantime, I have been holding a long conversation on Whatsapp with my next door neighbour who is 50 metres away. She has just completed her Ofsted at College and is embracing the weekend early. She wasn’t even observed so she shouldn’t be worrying. Anyway, she’s so skinny that they call her ‘Stick’ because, when she turns to the side, she is invisible. I’ve offered her free access to my wine store if it would help.

I was thinking about suits the other day and how seldom I wear them now having been my uniform for every single working day of my life for almost 40 years. The sloppy old man of today – I live in teeshirt and shorts most of the year – sometimes misses the formality of those days. I actually have very few formal shirts in my wardrobes and even less dress shoes. If I’m going to have new suits, I’m going to need some new shirts as well. I used to get all my shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt where each one will cost me £75.00 now. I can’t afford that!

Going out now for a walk. It is 7C/45F but feels much colder than that. It is definitely not a shorts day for me although I saw a couple of lads out in them this morning. Youth don’t feel the cold. The good news is that the sun came out as I walked and it felt quite pleasant. The bad news is that I had an Inland Revenue letter on the mat when I got home informing me that I had even more outstanding tax to pay from my investments over the new tax year. I might have to move to Florida for awhile.

Saturday, 15th February, 2025

I helped to start up a Whatsapp group. We call it Old Friends 69/72 Bookends and it involves the 20 or so men from our Year in College or at least the surviving ones. We swap our daily life experiences with each other, laugh at our problems and commiserate with the difficulties of growing old. It’s a lads thing. Some of them meet once a year back in Ripon where we first met. Some of us have not met for more than 50 years.

Yesterday, Andy H., who lives in central London and used to work at the Tower of London, was walking out of a church where he had been listening to a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra when he looked up and there was Chris T. and his wife coming out of the same church concert. They were down from Leeds especially for the concert. This was their first meeting since 1972. It’s a small world. L.S.O. Free Fridays at St Lukes is where it all happens!

My music today is from an opera that I haven’t listened to for a few years now but loved in the past: Donizetti’s Lucia de Lammermoor. It is almost 200 years old but has stood the test of time. I hope to emulate it although not in its romantic tragic content. Don’t you always hope it will end differently and well?

I don’t know if I have told the story before but I was in Digs for the first two years in College. I was the guest with two other lads of a nice couple called Mr & Mrs Boyd. After two years, in 1971 I moved into a grotty, rented flat with three other students in the centre of our small, rural town in North Yorkshire. I didn’t see Mr & Mrs Boyd again until I was at a conference in London, delivering a paper on School Attendance of all things in the latter 1990s. I was late and had to get a tube connection.

As I rushed across the concourse down in the bowels of central London, I had to push through a queue of people waiting to get to the ticket machines. As I did so, someone shouted and I thought they were complaining about me being rude. I looked back and there were Mr & Mrs Boyd from NorthYorkshire. I hadn’t seen them for 25 years. Unfortunately, we hadn’t got time for a catch up which I now regret but, what are the chances?

I’ve been invited to join the UK’s largest ever health research programme, designed to help researchers to discover new ways to prevent, detect, and treat diseases. It is called Our Future Health and it involves answering questionnaires, providing blood samples, being measured and weighed and allowing researchers to one’s medical records. I can sense readers shrieking, I wouldn’t expose myself like that! but I am relaxed about it. I have nothing to hide (well, nothing I’m prepared to tell you about).

It will give me a DNA analysis and read out. They will advise me what my DNA suggests I can expect in the future. It’s like Tarot cards but informed by science. Actually, the sell it as: Joining Our Future Health is like leaving your body to science – while you’re still alive. That quite appeals to me and it is not very inconvenient. There are local testing stations being set up across the country and the rerst can be done on the web. I can manage that.

Before they test measure me, I’m going out for a walk so I can present the best specimen I can be. Later I will do my Gym session while watching the football. No point in sitting still.

Sunday, 2nd February, 2025

Not keen on Sundays, as I’ve told you before but it has to be faced. Today is Sunday. Looking on the bright side: the sun is out; the air is warm; I am going to a sweet shop to buy a soothing present for an elderly relative which is my good deed for the day. You could almost confuse me with a Christian, Dear Reader.

Pauline’s brother-in-law has the next in a long series of painful operations to remove cancerous lumps from his skull. How he copes with it, I don’t know. To add to his problems, he suffers from developing dementia. One of the few things he really enjoys is eating old fashioned sweets. This morning, we are revisiting a shop where we bought his Christmas present from a rather down at heel part of Litlehampton.

They don’t appeal to me but these sweets really are of another century. Perhaps they appeal to the older demographic of Littlehampton. Still, they do sell in grams and not ounces. For 10 bags of 100 grams of different sweets C will have a kilo of enjoyment.

Perhaps it says something specific about me but I am genuinely pleased and more relaxed now I have largely tied up the whole year’s travel.

• May – Driving in France
• June – Thessaloniki
• July – Torrevieja
• August – Athens
• November – Tenerife

This morning I have been talking to the owner of the property we have rented for November. He sounds a nice chap and all reviews say he is very amenable. It was one of the reasons that I chose it. In addition to the current arrangements, we may fit in another brief trip to France and we will be visiting the North of England a couple of times. It’s going to be a busy year. I’m looking forward to it. I think it will do me good see new places, revisiting old ones, meeting new people, reuniting with old friends.

This morning, I’m listening to James Taylor. He has long been a friend to me. Thoughtful and intelligent, his laconic style is very appealing. Today, I am listening to:

You Can Close Your Eyes
Well the sun is surely sinking down
But the moon is slowly rising
And this old world must still be spinning ’round
And I still love you

I could have picked any one of more than a dozen tracks that regularly play across my mind. It is realxing but emotive, provoking yet enjoyable.

Lovely Spring day for a walk … and so good for you, Dear Reader. An hour or so will earn me the right to watch the football in the Gym while doing the rest of my program. Gorgeously warm and sunny this afternoon, daffodils are beginning to bloom and birds are beginning to be … birds. These are days to savour.

Monday, 3rd February, 2025

Gorgeous morning after quite a cold night. Got to valet the car ready for a trip up to Surrey tomorrow. That is my only responsibility today … apart from my exercise routine.

All the news this morning is dominated by Trump, Tariffs and the fallout for the World Economy. Economics is an exciting and fascinating subject. I wish that it had been part of my Degree study. As it wasn’t, I have had to teach myself. It’s not ideal but gives me enjoyment. The father of modern economic theory – John Maynard Keynes – came to prominence in the 1930s sparked by his reactions to the Great Depression. Keynes argued against the ideas of neoclassical economics which held that free markets would self-regulate the world market. Essentially, he was Protectionist. He believed in tariffs.

Keynes died in 1946 but his views prevailed right up until the 1970s when alternative policies by Milton Friedman and other Monetarists, who disputed the ability of government to favourably regulate the business cycle with fiscal policy, came to prominence. Free Trade was their gold standard.

It looks like this now aging debate is being revisited once more as Trump begins to impose US tariffs on a fragile world economy. It is all a bit mad because Keynesian economic theory has been espoused by the Left who saw Public Spending as a good thing while the Right saw unalloyed World Trade as a good thing. Suddenly, we have a right wing, disruptor in the Whitehouse turning to Keynesian Tariff Policy to defend national industries.

How will it end? Nobody knows although lots of people think they do. One view, expressed in this cartoon from the right leaning The Times today, suggests Trump’s attempt to bully the world will result in a backlash which will damage America. More likely, as the Financial Times suggests this morning, it will damage all of us. Tariffs from one side cannot be ignored. Bullies only prosper if you backdown. If Europe, Canada, Mexico, etc., stand up to Trump, the net result will be world inflation. Inflation will result in higher interest rates for longer and higher interest rates will lead to less economic activity and stagnation.

This is why economics is so fascinating. It is like chess. You have to think five moves ahead. What will your move do in five moves time? Is Trump capable of this? Does he only see the immediate? We will see it in one dimension? Bullies have to be bullied. If it wasn’t so dangerous for us all, it would be fun. It is not fun unless he is forced to climb down.

Music today is James Taylor again – Sweet Baby James. Always loved it, the words and shades of sorrowful colour. Loneliness is at it’s heart. It is a powerful emotion. Solitude, shades of simplicity.

And as the moon rises, he sits by his fire
Thinkin’ about women and glasses of beer
Reclosing his eyes as the doggies retire
He sings out a song which is soft, but it’s clear
As if maybe someone could hear

Out on a familiar, local walk, I suddenly realise how much faster I am pushing it now. It’s definitely a good sign. Tomorrow I will be walking like a mad man around the carparks of Ashford Hospital where I will be parked up for a couple of hours. It just has to be done.

Tuesday, 4th February, 2025

Up early because I am driving to Surrey this morning. It’s my new, temporary job as an ambulance driver that is in force this morning. So no music today. Political Podcasts instead thhis morning. Very exciting. I bet you’d love to travel with me today, Dear Reader. An hour up to Surrey and 30 mins down to Ashton and reverse. Three hours driving with two podcasts each way. What more could anybody want?

Went the scenic route again today to avoid the nightmare rennovations on the motorway. Then off to Ashford Hospital in Staines upon Thames.

The route to Ashford took us past the new Shepperton Studios which is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. They have recently been completely rebuilt and are dominated by Netflix Productions. Thought you’d like to know that. Luckily the journey there and back was relatively quiet today. C’s operation was excruciatingly painful but reasonably short lived. He just now has to suffer the consequences of recovery and that is a slower process when you’re 87. It is bad enough when you’re 74.

I’ve been using a Garmin Venu Sq. smart watch for a few years now. It appeals to my need for data and control. My current one, which is about 3 years old, was beginning to look a bit scratched and I wondered how long it would last so I bought a backup in the sales a couple of weeks ago. I just left it in its box. This morning, my old one died a noisy, buzzing death and stayed blank and data-less. It’s as if it knew I had moved on.

The new one has leapt into service seamlessly: Time/Date/Heart Rate/Steps/ on the front face but behind the scenes it records: Calories/Hydration/Temperature/ as well as Text Messages/ Emails/Whatsapps/Phone Calls/ and much more.

As I did my walk around the hospital carparks, the adjoining Tesco Superstore carpark and carwash site, – 1000 paces each complete circuit – I had one of those out-of-body experiences where I looked at myself from above and asked, What am I doing here? and I didn’t mean in those carparks but I did mean in this part of the world, at this time doing this activity. It is an existential question. I don’t know if everyone does that at times. Do you, Dear Reader? It has nothing to do with god or religious epiphany but an attempt to understand oneself in time-space context. I used to do it even more commonly late at night sitting outside in the pure darkness of our Greek home but it is quite disconcerting. In times like this, I need to talk but I was on my own.

Wednesday, 5th February, 2025

Beautiful if slightly chilly start to the day. Out quite early to Sainsburys to do the weekly shop. First stop as one walks in is Fresh Fruit & Vegetables. That is where we spend the most time and, this morning, where we spent most money. Total Bill was £61.20 of which Fruit & Vegetables took £40.00. It illustrates the journey we are on.

Today we bought Green Peppers, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Lettuces, Oranges and Lemons from Spain, Field Mushrooms from Netherlands, Bananas from Panama, Asparagus from Peru, Green Beans from Senegal, Melon from Brazil, Button Mushrooms from Ireland and Shallots from …. Norfolk. You see how Brexit has helped us take back control and secure our borders and made us self sufficient?

All the rubbish talked by Right Wing politicians of how Britain was self sufficient in Food in the past and our European Union membership had undermined that is sheer nonsense. Going back a century, we were not self sufficient although the imbalance was not as it is now but the variety of our diets was very monochrome compared with today.

Only the rich could afford exotic fruits and vegetables imported from warmer climes. Most of the population had to survive on things in season and not made more expensive by importation. This sort of regime was still in place for we post-war Boomers. Thank goodness life has moved on. I can eat asparagus outside the British growing season which only lasts for about 6 – 8 weeks. I want it in January. Just as I want Green Beans and Tomatoes in February not be restricted to Turnips and Swedes. The NFU claim we are 62% self sufficient. My evidence casts major doubt on that.

Music today is by a long time friend from 1969 – Leonard Cohen, Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye about the girl on a Greek island who he lived with and left and who died recently without ever seeing him again. He famously wrote her a terribly sad letter when he heard she was imminently dying of cancer. Of course, Cohen himself is now dead but what a sad and incomplete story. Just listening again takes me back to a garret room in College Digs and I shudder.

Lovely, warm walk this afternoon. Nature is springing back to life probably prematurely according to the forecast. It is going to get colder before we see any real advancement of the year. I predict that key months this year will be May and October.

Thursday, 6th February, 2025

It was certainly a colder night last night. We went down to 2C/36F whereas Greater Manchester & Leeds were -2C/28F. The reward is the most beautiful morning start with clear, blue sky and strong sunshine.

Did you know that Greater Manchester in general and Oldham and Rochdale in particular are some of the country’s most dangerous places to live throughout the UK according to the latest study reported in the MEN today. I must admit, I have thought how safe my current area of West Sussex is and how I feel personally where I live. It was brought into focus when my friend’s car was stolen from his drive up in Leeds. We both have keyless entry/starting and run the risk of cloning. I immediately ordered a Faraday pouch to store my car key in but I just don’t hear of car theft in the area. Even low level nuisance by kids isn’t a problem.

When you read the charts, the North/South crime balance is something like 2 – 1 which really emphasises the effects of poverty. When I was working there, the wards of Oldham and Rochdale featured highly in the top ten wards of poverty in the country rivalled only by the worst areas of inner London. It’s no surprise that Hull and Blackpool have risen up the chart as coastal and fishing towns have declined and fallen into delapidation. The fishing industry in Hull has been destroyed most recently by Brexit. The chavvy Blackpool holiday has been on the skids since the 1970s. It is hard to see how they come back to prominence. It’s so good that Boris Jojnson managed to level them all up!

Music today is from Phil Collins – someone who I know absolutely nothing about but it just seemed appropriate to complement today’s topic:

Another Day In Paradise
She calls out to the man on the street
‘Sir, can you help me?
It’s cold and I’ve nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?’
He walks on, doesn’t look back
He pretends he can’t hear her …

I am as guilty as anyone although I am trying to improve. There really are so many poor people in need of help.

Not that Worthing is any great shakes. Lots of Victorian/Edwardian buildings that are so typical of declining seaside towns. When they are renovated, they look lovely in the sunshine but older buildings are always compromises. No double/triple glazing. Lots of pipes on the outside of buildings and wires running visibly around the inside of buildings. It makes them look old and shabby. Seaside, of course, means gulls.

I took these photos this morning and didn’t even notice the cloud of gulls in the sky until I uploaded it later. They are everywhere and they are quite messy. That mess is not cleaned up as often as one might like.

Whe the tide is out; when the season is low; when the tourist have left, the whole place can look a bit sad and waiting for paradise lost.

Friday, 7th February, 2025

A cold, grey morning. My Housekeeper is going to the Beauty Clinic for an hour or so and then I have to drive on to the fish shop by the beach for a couple of sides of salmon. I think we eat salmon, green beans and asparagus more than any other meal. We get through enormous quantities of salmon. It’s one of those fishes I am just as happy to eat ‘farmed’ as ‘wild’. Fortunately, I have a chef who is skilled in skinning and portioning fish.

It feels so cold out there this morning. It reads 5C/41F and did do all night but the breeze is making it feel bone chilling. I was told that my cancer treatment could result in me feeling the cold more and I think it’s true. Older adults often feel colder than younger people as their bodies change with age. A slower metabolic rate, thinner layer of fat and poorer blood circulation make them more sensitive to the cold. My younger wife laughs at me because it was always her who complained about the cold first. Now it’s me. She’s nice like that!

I’ve decided that activity will be in the Gym today. I’m watching a massive series called Homeland while I’m exercising. It is an 8 series x 12 episodes so 96 episode story in total. Each one is around an hour so the whole thing will easily get me well into the Spring. Essentially it is American but has a number of UK actors in it. It centres around political espionage and real life Foreign Policies all of which interest me.

I’m only on the second series and I am absolutely gripped which is good because exercise is almost forgotten as I watch. It stars British, old Etonian Damian Lewis as a Marine who was captured and imprisoned in Afghanistan for years, converted to Islam and returned to America as a sleeper spy although he is feted as a national hero.

Our Gym features a Treadmill, a Rowing Machine and a Lumbar Exercise Bike. They are all electronically controlled. You can put sound systems through them, download internet-based exercise programmes through them and chose and record exercise routines and results. Essentially, we decided from the outset that we would not have less than we did at the David Lloyd Health Club so we bought professional level equipment. It also includes an exercise mat, a Step Bench some Weights and a Skipping Rope.

I have tended to concentrate on Cardio work using the Treadmill and Bike in particular. I have to move on and intend to start Strength and Balance work. I have never been supple. I think I was born ‘stiff’. I’ve never been able to do the Lotus Position in my life. I have rugby player arms and thighs and nothing moves easily. I have got to get into more rowing, weight lifting and floor exercises. Well, that’s the aim.

I’ve also got to work on my balance. I’ve noticed recently that it’s even worse than it used to be which was already very poor. Now, I can close my eyes and … fall over. I can go up a ladder and feel extremely out of control. This is a change and it is another sign of aging. Researchers have found that balance begins to decline in midlife, starting at about age 50. I have to exercise to combat it.

Music today is a bit left field for me. It is Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli combining on a pertformance of Perfect Symphony. I don’t know why but I love it!

Saturday, 8th February, 2025

A grey, cold morning. It isn’t inviting me out. So, I’m staying in at least for a while. I’ve got I.T. jobs to do. My wife’s laptop is running slow so I’m working on that, cleaning up old, dead, broken files, tidying up the Solid State Hard Drive, removing unnecessary Start-Up programmes, anything to help it along. Because a large chunk of the rest of this year is going to be spent travelling both abroad and in hotels in UK, I am addressing the safety of our data.

Everybody with a smartphone, tablet or laptop they use outside the security of their own home should install a VPN. A virtual private network establishes a digital connection between your computer and a remote server owned by a VPN provider, creating a point-to-point tunnel that encrypts your personal data, masks your IP address, and lets you sidestep website blocks and firewalls on the internet. In human speak that means you can be whoever you want in which ever place in the world you want at any time.

If you live in a dictatorship – Russia, China, America, etc., you can still access the free press by telling the Web that you are actually somewhere else. A girl in China can be in London … virtually. On a lower level but just as valuable to me, I can be in Italy but still access British TV & Radio as if I’m in London. Much more importantly than that, I can be using a hotel network but my activity – like access to my Bank Account or Credit Cards is hidden behind the wall of VPN secrecy.

Of course, nothing is for free. I have paid £64.00 for 2 years’ subscription to the service but I will install it on 2 PCs/Laptops, 2 iPads and 2 smartphones. It is definitely worth it. I have found that, when I scan shopping items in at Sainsburys, Waitrose & Asda, vpn comes on automatically with the supermarket network connection and that stops the scanning process so I have to turn it off. Otherwise it is priceless. Whether I am in a Greek or Spanish hotel or even in Yorkshire/Lancashire, the people I contact will always think I am in East London.

The kitchen is a hive of activity. Salmon is being prepared for Salmon & Tarragon fish cakes. The oven is being valeted. The Laundry is buzzing with washing and the dryer bleeping to be emptied. I sit quietly in my Office, installing VPN software on apparatus and writing my Blog while listening to today’s music which is about as obscure as I can.

I remember some things so clearly although they were long, long ago. I can see myself in my childhood bedroom at 12.00 pm on a Saturday afternoon when out of a battered old radiogram the Moody Blues, “Go Now.” came and I almost fell over. I can see the exact moment beauty jarred with squalor when I first heard Chopin’s Nocturne in C Sharp Minor in a terrible upstairs garret in Oldham. I can remember the first time I heard this song: Lorraine Ellison – Stay With Me as I worked on a University essay at 3.00 am in the morning. I can remember the feeling of a hand reaching deep down inside me and wrenching my inner self out so violently that I was utterly empty, devoid of anything. If only losing weight was that easy.

Managed to get an hour’s walk in before the rain started this morning. It was cool and grey and fairly miserable but the exercise must go on. Afternoon in the Gym before the big, Rugby Match – England v France at Twickenham. Hope it’s a good game!

Sunday, 26th January, 2025

A grey morning. Sundays are generally grey. There are the occasional zealots who light candles and believe they are illuminating the world. In reality, of course, they are merely obscuring it, hiding/cowering behind the smoke of religiosity.

If you are a regular Blog reader, you will know I think it’s nonsense and you might as well read the Tarot cards or follow your Horoscope. As I rush forward to the age of 74, look what’s in store for me. Unseen cosmic forces …. Wow! And if you believe that, you will believe anything like ….. an man ascended to heaven.

So, don’t read too much into today’s hauntingly beautiful music choice – Miserere Nostri by Thomas Tallis. It was written 450 years ago in 1575 which is one of the most amazing things about this accomplishment.

You may have noticed that one of the things I enjoy doing is taking photographs. I don’t know why. I haven’t got the skill of my little brother, Bob, who really takes it seriously but I do enjoy it. My wife bought me an early SLR camera in 1982 and it gave me great pleasure as we toured Europe.

I looked back and 15 years ago, I was using a more professional edition – a Cannon EOS SLR – which my school had kindly bought for me. Actually, I bought it for myself and just forgot to leave it there when I left. I remember thinking at the time how expensive it was at £750.00. Now, it would be around double that. I think it was a serious 12mp sensor and I got quite creative with it – even doing some b&w stuff.

Fast forward 15 years and I still have the camera but never use it or the multitude of lenses that I spent a fortune on in a vain attempt to get better. Now, I have a Samsung S24 Ultra smart phone which has a 200mp sensor. Quite incredible. The next generation must-have which has just been launched – the Samsung S25 Ultra – will incorporate AI into its lens technology to allow zoom and scaling beyond belief of the 2010 world.

A bag full of camera and lenses, cleaners and filters along with a tripod is replaced by a single smart phone in my pocket. I don’t have to go out to take photographs just record things I see on the spur of the moment.

I think it does quite well and everything is immediately backed up to the Cloud. I can digitally manipulate them in my Office when I get home. Isn’t Technological Advancement a wonderful thing, Dear Reader?

Monday, 27th January, 2025

This is how it should be. Everyone goes back to work and it is a gorgeous day …. left for those who deserve it like me, Dear Reader. The aroma of freshly baked bread is wafting through the house – taunting me to break my diet. Not a chance. Targets have to be met! Aims have to be achieved. Today is my 159th without alcohol. Just 112 more to go. Ahhh …

Still, the news is full of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz so I have a lot to be thankful for. We Boomers never knew the horror of war like our parents. Our deprivations were minimal and threats of the Cold War didn’t come to pass.

Music this morning is the hauntingly beautiful Schindler´s List Theme – John Williams. From the perspective of today, the whole thing feels unimaginable but that is the real risk that survivor warn us about. It gives the lie to those who argue that the past – our History – does not matter and that only moving forward is important. If we don’t reflect on and learn lessons from our past, it has all been for nothing and we run the risk of repeating our mistakes.

We stand on others shoulders. Every generation has something to deal with and we learn from it, develop a collective memory which we pass on through our children or other people’s children to increase the fund of knowledge.

This is particularly true of teachers. I have known some wonderful teachers across the years who have been constantly told they are not worth paying big salaries to – the country can’t afford them – unlike the workers in business, the entrepreneurs, the inventors, etc.. It is conveniently forgotten that all those people started out being taught by teachers. They stand on teachers shoulders and society conveniently forgets that at crucial times. I don’t. I wrote to the significant teachers in my life recognising their contributions and thanking them for it.

These three men from my Training College in Ripon retired long after I left but had all come from war time service and then contributed to countless lives of future teachers. Brian Parker who taught in my Faculty of English had been a fighter pilot during the war – a perilous and normally short-lived profession – but lived to pass on his experiences to another series of generations. Ronnie Kent, whose religion meant nothing to me, was a captivating scat-jazz pianist who would entertain the crowds in the Common Room at the drop of a dog collar. There are some things one never forgets.

Tuesday, 28th January, 2025

Dark and wet start to the day. Going to get better as the morning develops. Just about to book the Spanish trip which makes things better. All the statistics are going in the right direction. My weight is down .. again. My INR, which I currently test every Tuesday, is exactly right at 2.5. It’s gone straight on to my spreadsheet which I started exactly 16 years ago this week. I was only 57 and in my last couple of months of teaching. Momentous times!

I have never been one for fashion but I am bang on trend this time. Prostate cancer is now the most commmon form. It has overtaken breast cancer as the most common type of the disease, after a record 55,000 men had it diagnosed in 2023, up from 44,000 in 2019, analysis by Prostate Cancer UK shows.

Two years on, I am free …. at least for now. It was a life-changing experience which I am not in a hurry to repeat. It disrupted my pattern of life in ways I did not predict. Not least, it insidiously disrupted my fitness particularly with the hormone treatment. It has been a long haul back but back I am and ready to start living life again.

I don’t know if you take your health seriously. I do but I didn’t for large stretches of my life. I was the typical boy. I thought I was invincible. I would live forever and I wasn’t too bothered if I died. It wouldn’t make much difference. I didn’t see a doctor. I didn’t go to the dentist. I ate too much and drank too much. I did give up smoking but reluctantly. I worked hard and the stress of that was rewarded with unhealthy pleasures.

Age finally catches up with everyone. There is time for self-reflexion. Suddenly, I realised that only I could really change the situation. I had to grow up and take responsibility for my own health.

Every time I went for a Doctor’s appointment and I was asked, Now, Mr. Sanders how much do you drink a week? My stock answer was, Why, how much do you drink in a week? I was defensive by being passive aggressive. It feels so much better to be facing that question myself now. I haven’t given up alcohol per se but I have maintained my self discipline and that is important.

Dementia will come to so many of us who live in to our 80s. Professor Tim Spector who runs the Zoe Health Study I have been contributing to daily for the past 3 years has this article in The Telegraph today. It’s basic thrust is that, although Dementia has a genetic element, in large part it can be allieviated and held at bay by diet – largely the Mediterranean diet of Fruit & Vegetable, Fish & Lean Meat + olive oil. That more or less sums up my diet for the past 25 years.

Of course, living in the Mediterranean atmosphere helps enormously. This morning, we rented a house for July just on the outskirts of Torrevieja. It has everything we need – Air Con., WiFi, Pool, Dishwasher, Washing Machine, Smart TV, Kitchen, Large, sunny balcony to eat outside. Walking distance of beach and shops but in a ‘nice’, quiet neighbourhood. We fly out of Gatwick and into Murcia International. Never been there so it will be an interesting experience.

The grey morning turned into a sunny afternoon. Music this morning was an old friend – Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. I went out for a long walk with it playing in my head. Written in 1809 between the Napoleonic Wars, the music is uplifting and majestic, confident and brave. It made me walk much faster and with more sense of purpose today. It is so good to be back to fitness. It makes me feel so much better.

A session in the Gym before Supper which is Γεμιστές πιπεριές και σαλάτα / Stuffed Peppers and Green Salad. Absolutely delicious. And then on to the next trip to arrange – Southern Tenerife for the month of November. It is the warmest destination in Europe in the Winter. That’s what I need – warmth!

Wednesday, 29th January, 2025

Lovely morning. Major target with my weight reached 3 days early. I had been aiming for the start of February. Off to town and M&S alcohol-free shelves. First, I’m going to listen to the music for the day: Vivo per lei sung by Andrea Bocelli.

A bit sloppy, I know, but great words. If you want Romanticism, you can’t go far wrong with Bocelli.

Vivo per lei da quando, sai,
la prima volta l’ho incontrata.
Non mi ricordo come, ma
m’è entrata dentro e c’è restata.

Don’t things sound so much better and more appropriate in a Mediterranean, romance language? Everything sounds, tastes, feels better in Italian. I have known this song for many years. I know it well. I can more or less sing it in the original. Well, I say sing …. In the car on my own I sound exactly like Andrea Bocelli.

Down at the beach opposite M&S, the sky was still grey with a weak, watery sun trying to break through. Nice and warm but looking wintery. The incoming tide was churning up the sand and reflecting the sky.

Spent a while trying to fix a South Tenerife rental for the month of November. Actually, I seem to be doing it early enough to have quite a bit of choice. This one seems favourite at the moment – £4,400.00 for a month with everything of our requests ticked off. Sleep on it tonight. Act tomorrow.

Thursday, 30th January, 2025

Absolutely gorgeous morning. Cold but bright and sunny with clear blue sky. Had to put the central heating on downstairs this morning. At least I can do that. There are so many in heating poverty and this morning they will hear that water bills are going up considerably because the private businesses owning water (and you have to consider that description and ask yourself who should own the natural stuff that falls freely from the sky) are going to make us pay for all the development that their profits should be used for instead of enriching all their shareholders excessively.

Anyway, the cold outside is nothing to the hardship of a 19th century poet’s garret featured in Puccini‘s La Boheme and I make my music for the morning Rodolpho‘s aria: Che gelida manina (What a frozen little hand.) as he takes the hand of the fated Mimi while he tells her of his life as a poet, and ends by asking her to tell him more about her life. We poets are all the same. It all begins with the hands.

I don’t know what your relationship with sugar is like but mine is non-existent. I divorced sugar at least 15 years ago. Since then, I have relied on Saccharin, Aspartame and Sucralose – all manufactured sweeteners with virtually no calories. It does work but it would have been more helpful if I could have eliminated my need for sweet flavours at all.

As I’ve got older, I have found my preferences moving from sweet to savoury but I still need sweetener in things like Museli, Yoghurt and Coffee. I use a sucralose derivative called Splenda on a daily basis. OK, it has 2 calories per serving. I can live with that but there is some evidence that Artificial sweeteners can alter the gut microbiome, which may negatively impact gut health. I must try again to limit my usage.

The advice for healthy eating is no longer 5-a-day but 30-a-week. Research found that people who consume at least 30 different plant-based foods each week had a higher diversity of microbes in their gut, which may contribute to improved overall health and well-being. I easily do that. Sometimes I do it in a single day. What I am concerned about is that the good microbes of fruit & vegetables are being counteracted by my artificial sweeteners. You have to think of these things, Dear Reader.

Of course, not everyone has their own inventive Chef as I do but I am happy not to go over the top with cooking. I prefer classic simplicity if anything. Wandering through Waitrose this morning … as you do, I noticed their weekly paper available. On the front is an attempt to persaude people to eat fruit and vegetables that just goes a little far for me.

When it comes to cauliflower dressed with pomegranite, I tend to turn off. Cauliflower? Yes. Pomegranite? Maybe. Together? Not really. Still, I haven’t got a closed mind and I’m willing to try it.

Today, I will consume freshly squeezed oranges, a banana, some grapes. In my Museli I will have oats, sultanas, coconut and berries. This evening my Supper will include Green Beans and Asparagus. This is an average day of at least 9 different plant-based foods. I’m going to live forever! I can hear some groans of despair. Stop it!

Friday, 31st January, 2025

A dark, wet morning opening. It will get better. Life will improve. I was only thinking yesterday how the daylight was lengthening. The mornings are lighter earlier and the evenings darken later. As we say goodbye to January 2025, a new world is coming. There are always set backs in the progression and this is one.

I am in my Office searching for sunshine to buy and unashamedly listening to Andrea Bocelli – Sogno (Dream). Coming back to it has reminded me how much I have loved it in the past. I have always tended to the sentimental and Italian just enhances rather underscores the platitudinous lyrics.

While I am in this mood, I should record the death of Marianne Faithfull – a seminal figure from my past. Her father was Major Glyn Faithfull, an eccentric British MI6 agent turned professor of Italian literature. Marianne spent her early years at Braziers Park, an upmarket commune founded by her father in an Oxfordshire country house. In her autobiography, she described it as a “mixture of high utopian thoughts and randy sex”.

Certainly, to a young man with the testosterone-fuelled sap rising, she represented the latter. There were stories of her and Jagger and a Mars Bar that we could only dream of. Her life spiralled in and out of control and featured heroin addiction but to die at 78 must shock our generation. A 74th birthday soon would mean just 4 more left and it is unthinkable.

On another plain entirely but still unthinkable, five years ago, on 31 January 2020, the UK left the European Union. It was an act of blind and wanton vandalism that was shocking in its ignorance.

It is now widely acknowledged that it was a catastrophic mistake which the thinking class warned the unthinking classes it would be. We were told we were scaremongering. All the scares have been well and truly mongered. UK Plc has been harmed in virtually every area of life including the one thing that we were told was driving the vote – immigration. This was mainly because the Tory government told people they wanted to control their borders while knowing we need huge amounts of immigration to support the economy. And nothing has changed.

And after all that, the sun has come out. The sky is blue and walking can start. Happy days, Dear Reader!

Saturday, 1st February, 2025

Happy new month, Dear Reader. Every new month, I set myself targets to achieve. I have given myself a weight loss target and a fitness target which stretch into March this time because Feb. is a short month. There is an ongoing savings and investment target which must be met. The alcohol target – of nil – remains. Funnily enough, there was a whole programme devoted to the rise in alcohol-free wines on BBC-R4 yesterday. Apparently, Gen Z don’t do alcohol at all. They much prefer drugs to blur reality instead.

At least January ended well. After days of searching, I finally decided on a property to rent in Tenerife for the whole of November. It is on the Adeje coast by the beach although it has its own heated pool as well. It’s in a gated community but close to shops and restaurants. Reviews of previous stays are excellent.

Along with the property, I’ve booked flights from Gatwick and, because I don’t want to leave the car in an airport carpark for a month, we will go by taxi and stay in a hotel the night before. I’ve booked Sofitel at Gatwick Airport for the night before and an Airport Lounge for the morning of travel. Nothing like being fully prepared is there, Dear Reader? This time, I’ve used Booking.com which I am a member of and have used many times before. I now have to contact the individual owner with our flight details so they can prepare for our arrival …. in 8 months time.

Music today is … the last one from moody Bocelli (I promise.) – Il mare calmo della sera / The calm evening sea. I have known so many of those over the years on Greek islands in general and Sifnos in particular and I hope there are many still to come, Dear Reader. Long, hot, lazy evenings with the water lapping gently under a starry sky. Sipping a glass of good red wine and nibbling luscious olives, talking, planning, late into the night. Dreaming of good things ahead. Let’s hope there are many, many more to come.

Now I am going out for an hour or so walk which will let me watch the Ireland v England Six Nations match later in the Gym. I haven’t played a game of Rugby since 1975. I can’t believe it was 50 years ago.

Sunday, 19th January, 2025

A cold, grey morning in which one has to grind out the intentions for the day. Political thinking and interview shows, newspaper reading, music, Blog writing, exercise – walking outside and Gym work, football to watch …. and rest.

• Blog starts 839th week – 5,867 days
• Alcohol abstinence for 21st week – 145 days
• Walked 7.5 miles every day for 141 days – 1057 miles

The news is all centred around the Gaza deal which looks like it will start in the next few hours. The political interview shows are hijacked by this news and the Trump slant on it. It is still very disturbing that the media is so dominated by right wing ownership and thinking and that the print media feeds the Radio/TV media to generate a blanket right wing noise.

Music today is centred on one of my favourite instruments – the cello – and one of my favourite exponents of the cello – Jacqueline du Pré who died so tragically young. It is a very sad sound and a very sad piece in the gloomy light of this morning – Gabriel Fauré’s Élégie in C minor Op. 24. The irony is that the context of my introduction to this piece was the shabby poverty of Acre Lane in 1973 across which this rich but plaintive sound played.

An interesting piece in the Sunday Times today illustrated the passage of time across the generations. My age are known as The Boomers because we were the product of the post-war baby boom that attempted to replace the war dead and celebrate a brave new world.

My generation are all now in our 70s. We are early Boomers because our early life was still influenced by rationing and demob talk. All the talk recently has been about Gen Z (pronounced as an American Gen Zee) who are so disillusioned with the world and with politics and so far away from Hitler and World War, from Stalin and the Cold War that they espouse no democracy prefering the leadership of a strong autocrat.

The Millenials or Generation Y are so called because the oldest members of this generation became adults at the turn of the millennium. They, on the other hand, value convenience, individuality, ethics, and sustainability. When I look down the list, I find little I disagree with. I must be young at heart. For those readers who accuse me of obsession with the Past, they are clearly wrong. Like Millenials, I welcome the new, technological innovations of the age but it is only possible to fully appreciate them in light of what they replace, supersede, improve on.

I’ve done an hour’s walk in quite cold (4C/39F) temperatures. Now I can allow myself to watch the football …. while exercising in the Gym.

Monday, 20th January, 2025

A bright, sharp start to the morning as I discovered when I put the bins out. My next door neighbour remarked that I seemed to be getting slimmer by the week which raised my spirits and set me up for today’s effort. I am catching up on correspondence with friends and reading my digital copies of The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian while listening to the music of the day – Brahms | Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major op. 78 in the background. Delicious!

Meanwhile, Chef is portioning up 8 pints of stock which were produced in the pressure cooker outside in the garden yesterday. Outside because the smell is all-pervasive and it drives the neighbours’ cats wild rather than permeating the house. The stock is then stored in the outside freezer for future use. Chef is amused that a Turkey bought after Christmas for just £8.00 instead of £60.00 has provided 4 meals and all this stock – the true meaning of home economy.

Window cleaner’s here today and the glass is sparkling in the sunshine. He only comes once a month and still charges £21.00 as he has done for almost 8 years. He seems happy and does a good job so all is well in window land.

If you have a smartphone and are a Boomer or younger, you probably use the phone for digital payments. Android phone users tend to have Google Pay and Apple phone users have Apple Pay. They use digital wallets into which one can slot digital copies of all types of cards.

Mine contains Credit/Debit cards, Shopping Cards like Nectar, Waitrose, Tesco Clubcard, etc.. It also contains, at times, my Boarding Passes for flights, Airport Lounge cards, Hotel membership cards and more. It will be used for the new, European Visa card and was used for my Covid injection credentials in the past.

All these cards saved digitally report information about me and my activities to their sponsoring organisations. They are a part of my digital footprint. Of course, any over-sharer like me is not really troubled by that process. Shops see my purchases and target me with offers based on that information. Hotels offer me incentives to book again, etc..

Now, we are going to have a new, government digital wallet for our Driving Licence, Health Records, Pensions and more. Not sure why it can’t be integrated into existing ones but it will certainly put the skids under the phogeys who haven’t got round to smartphones yet. They will become essential to modern life and not a moment too soon.

Quite cool down at the beach this morning although it looks as if Antony Gormley got there before me.

Tuesday, 21st January, 2025

A lovely bright start to the morning which featured my music of the day from Claude Debussy – Deux Arabesques. I didn’t find this until relatively recently but I think it’s going to feature more over the next couple of decades of my life. I hope you’re sampling them, Dear Reader. It’s never too late to try new things …. or old, for that matter.

Today, I’m looking at diet. I have always struggled with my weight. I blame my Mother. I am an early Boomer and was brought up on hearty, calorie-filled meals which included plenty of carbohydrate. Homemade Suet Dumplings with Beef Stew, Shepherd’s Pie, Chicken & Mushroom Pie, Steamed Puddings, Treacle Tart, home made cakes and biscuits, etc.. I’m sure they conditioned my body for life. Of course, childhood was a time of constant moving. I was playing and training Rugby 6 times a week during the Winter and similary Athletics in the Summer. I always remember a girlfriend saying, You never stop moving even waiting for a bus.

When I stopped playing competitively, I tended to put on weight. And so my mature life has been a constant battle. It has taken me a long time to learn to eat low calorie things like green vegetables, salads and fruit. Although starchy foods like pasta, potatoes, bread and rice are generally good for people, they are a nightmare for me. My blood sugar goes sky high and then plummets leaving me feeling the need to eat again. It challenges my self-discipline.

As a result, my wife has devised ingenious ways of replacing carbohydrates. I know science differentiates Simple and Complex Carbs but I just try to control my glucose levels and things like this Spiraliser which makes spaghetti out of Courgettes help me. Not drinking alcohol also helps me because alcohol fuels hunger and encourages me to eat more than I need. Fortunately, my addictive nature has got me hooked on alcohol-free wine which doesn’t have that effect. Went down to M&S for just that this morning.

One of the funny/interesting things about alcohol-free drinks is that one has to be age-checked to buy it. Why? The supermarkets can’t be bothered adjusting their databases to distinguish between the two. The M&S lady said she wanted 4 examples of identification before she could let me buy it. It’s not cheap at £4.00 a bottle and she was joking. I offered to show her my wrinkles but she suddenly seemed less keen.

Coming out of M&S, the day had lost its light and low, grey cloud arrived. The lights on Worthing Pier were coming on. That will teach me to go to M&S. We are forecast for a week of rain to come. Looks like I’ll be living in the Gym where I’m watching Homeland, an espionage thriller which will keep me going a long time with its 8 Series of 12 episodes each.

Wednesday, 22nd January, 2025

A relatively mild night in which we didn’t fall below 8C/47F but it has brought a grey, misty morning. Fresh fish has been ordered from the coast shop – sides of salmon and locally caught cod – so we will go down for a walk and to collect it. Still finalising travel plans so that is near the top of the list this morning. I’m struggling with a malaise that is dogging me and dulling my incentive to act. I’m working to shrug it off.

Music this morning is a relatively modern piece – less than 100 years old – Aaron Copland’s Appalacian Spring. I first heard it in 1968 in the Prefects’ Room of my Grammar School and found it intriguing but ‘difficult’. I think I still do. It was written at the end of WW2 in 1945 and was seen as clean sweep in the world of music. You hear the cadences of ‘popular music’ woven into it. What I know as The Lord of the Dance is there but that is a hymn written in 1963 so post dating it. What I’ve subsequently discovered is that the melody was taken from the American Shaker song Simple Gifts composed in 1848. I tell myself that I have to listen to ‘difficult’ pieces and that all of this is a learning timeline but, at the age of 73, perhaps it is time to settle for those I really enjoy.

My wife would happily be 20 again. She longs to be younger. She bemoans every sign of aging. In the past, people routinely lied about their age in order to deny the aging process. I think I am out of step because, at every stage, I have always tried to be content with who and what I am. However, I am becoming increasingly concerned about the physical changes of aging. I know I am challenging myself more in retirement but I ache in the mornings, find getting up out of a chair takes longer to straighten up and go forward. When I get out of the car after driving for an hour or so, I walk like an old man bent double with age.

While changes will occur every year, past research shows that, at the protein level, the most notable changes take place around ages 34, 60, and 78. Most people begin to notice a shift in the appearance of their face around their 40’s and 50’s. Other than this, the transition is so incremental as not to be noticeable. It is photographs like this that really hit me hard and go back to my own records.

It is in bones, muscles and joints that deterioration is most noticeable and that’s why I am trying hard to exercise and eat healthily. Unfortunately, my sisters, who must be made of inferior stuff, have had to have a number of their body parts replaced as they fall into the pit of old age. But mental deterioration often gets ignored even though it can be even more devastating to the quality of life. That’s why I read, analyse and write every day. It is why I continue to challenge myself intellectually in the hope that it will stave off or delay dementia and why challenging travel and relationships must be continually pursued into old age. A long walk and a Gym session is where I’m going now and later I will book the next piece of travel abroad.

As Trumpism returns with a vengeance, we must never let this sort of thing back into the body politic:

While the world recoils from the rule of oligarchs, it’s good to see Murdoch and his ilk humbled by Tom Watson and Prince Harry.

Thursday, 23rd January, 2025

Up early. Big day. Today is Dishwasher Day. It is now a month since we had a working dishwasher. If we don’t have a working dishwasher by this evening, I am literally going to kill myself. It has been intolerable! I have had to dry up after each evening meal. It has been like the 1950s. Four weeks ago, we went to Currys to order a new one to replace ours which had broken down after 8 years of good service. We were told we would have to wait a fortnight for it to be delivered and fitted. When it was, they told us immediately it wouldn’t work. There are two sorts of fully integrated, fit under dishwashers – Fixed and Sliding. Who knew?

They delivered a Fixed Door machine and guess what we required. Our kitchen was an upgrade of the standard David Wilson supply which came with an AEG dishwasher and Blackpool illuminations below. The plinth studded with lights means the door has to slide up and down as it opens and closes. Today, they are supposed to be delivering a sliding door dishwasher to bring joy and celebrations to our household.

While I wait in anticipation, I am listening to the music of the day – Mozart – Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major – in my Office. Can’t decide whether I am enjoying it or not. I wanted to play the Requiem but wondered if it just looked too depressing for a Thursday morning and that you would judge me badly, Dear Reader.

No, to hell with it. I’m going to be daring. I am going to throw caution to the wind and play Mozart’s Requiem in D minor – Lacrimosa. Written, as he was dying, in 1791. Death featured strongly in the lives of the people of the 18th century. Mozart himself died at the age of just 35.

It’s a wonderful word, Lachrymose. We don’t use it enough nowadays. If you don’t know what it means, look it up. You should do that every time you come across a strange word and do it immediately. That’s what Google is for. I was hearing about a lad who shunned all the privileges of a private school education that his parents bought, achieved little or nothing in his school work but suddenly, in his early 20s, realises he is in deficit. He thinks he ought to read some books. Those around him are using words he doesn’t understand.

I was lucky to be brought up with words. My Mother used words all the time. My Grammar School education was big on words. My English teacher had a policy of introducing and getting us to learn a new word every day. He was my Rugby teacher who I idolised and I can still go back to 1963 as he led us to the upper floor window of our classroom overlooking the pitches. We waved his hand across the view and said, Panorama. We then had to use the word each time we saw him around school … until the next word, Aesthetic.

Of course, many years later and as I was learning Greek, I found that the origin of both words was in the Greek. Panorama came from Πανόραμα Pan horama / All view and is pronounced Pan-or-ama. The stress is on the or not the a. Aesthetic came from Αισθητικός and is pronounced Ais-thet-ikos with the stress on the thet.

I am gripped by language. I have carried the lesson around with me for the last 60 years. I can’t not know the meaning of a word. I have to look it up instantly. Of course, I no longer need a dictionary or a thesaurus. Google everywhere is my go-to source. With smartphones, I don’t even have to wait until I get home. I can often be found on a walk looking something up on my phone.

The strangest thing nowadays is that I know so many more words than I realise. While I am writing, I use a word which I think I should check and it invariably turns out to be exactly the right one for that situation. How many words do we all know in our collective subconscious but don’t use enough to make ourselves understood? You ought to try the principle out, Dear Reader. It doesn’t matter what age you are. Learn a new word each day and use it all the time until you get comfortable with it. It is so empowering.

Can you believe it? The dishwasher has arrived. Another Romanian – with pefect English – has arrived to fit it. Turns out the previous plug had overheated and fused to the back of the machine. A new socket is required. An electrician is required. Can you believe it? The Romanian is an electrician in his spare time. He just happens to have a spare socket replacement with him. He does the job in 5 minutes and I pay him £20.00. Dishwasher slots in and the only difficulty is fitting the door. A few nervous moments and … I don’t have to kill myself. We have a working dishwasher.

Friday, 24th January, 2025

Storm? What storm? It isn’t pleasant outside. Dark clouds over head and rain still falling lightly but no storm here. The rain will disappear in the next hour and then we have a good day in prospect. Very mild over night – 11C/52F – but dark under brooding clouds.

To match the weather, I have chosen a piece inspired by rain this morning. Chopin – Raindrop Prelude (Op. 28 No. 15) is just delightful and draws down inside me as it insists with the left hand just as the dark skies do. The prelude is noted for its repeating A♭, which appears throughout and sounds like raindrops.

From the sublime to the ridiculous this morning. Never have I been so happy to have to unstack the dishwasher. It was a joy! We’ve had a dishwasher since we moved to Slade House in 1984. To be without for a month was a nightmare. Sanity is restored once more. Life can begin again.

Mandy was a very young 13 when I first met her in 1978, into animals and particularly horses. She had her own horse in the paddock in front of the house. She was/is clever and has particular emotional intelligence with great interpersonal skills all of which I lack. She was attending Hulme Grammar for Girls. One of the first things she invited me to do was join her and her friend in a game of hopscotch which was chalked out on the patio.

She was known as Titch. Now, 47 years on (What am I saying?) and living in America, Mandy is celebrating her 60th Birthday. We wish her a very happy day and hope she sees it as the milestone it is. She is officially a senior citizen.

Saturday, 25th January, 2025

The day started well at 7.00 am as I got on the bathroom scales. It got much better as we went to the beach for a walk in warm sun. Whatever the warnings were about storms recently, they just passed us by completely.

The world was out this morning – walking, dog walking, cycling. scootering, sailboarding, kyaking, paddling – it was all going on this Saturday morning.

Back for coffee and some Office work. New edition of one of our central credit cards means a major job for updating with so many organisations from media purchases to hotels and holiday bookings to purchasing organisations, iPad and phone apps, etc. Every one has to be Bank cross-checked which adds to the time.

While I work, I am listening to the optimism of the day and the sun and blue sky outside through Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending which, ironically, was probably written to signal quite the opposite. Composed in 1914, it rather signalled the end of an era, the final symbol of purity and beauty in Nature that men at war would leave behind in old England – reflecting nostalgia for a partly mythological lost age of innocence.

Anyway, all done now and time to read the press. Like 1914, nothing stays the same. Everything is in a permanent state of flux. And so it is for the government. Growing the Economy is on the front of every Labour politician’s mind and the most effective way to do it is to deal with housing. Young people need places to live. If they can become home owners, they have a stake in society that will change their lives completely.

People who buy houses do so by working, earning money, paying taxes and then spending their money on furniture, furnishings, home services, cars on the drive, etc.. They go on to have children and spend money on them. All of this contributes to the Economy. It drives Demand which commands Supply which drives Consumption and more Demand, etc.

The problem is that many people find it difficult to deal with change. They find it threatening. New houses built in their neighbourhood threaten to change it. The view is changed. The density of people and transport is changed. The collective noise is changed. There is fear of the other – the stranger. Cultures are broadened and challenged. And so a groundswell of dissent based on fear of change arises and threatens inevitable development. And it is inevitable. This is what a Labour Government is bravely siezing.

The village we moved to 9 years ago has had an enormous amount of new housing since we got here. It has changed the feeling of the area, the congestion on the roads and the density of customer demand. This morning, in a trawl of local media of locations from my past – Derby, Greater Manchester, Huddersfield and Sussex, there was no shortage of dissatisfaction with a changing world. Labour are the first government to show a willingness to override them.

Sunday, 12th January, 2025

Another glorious morning with lots of possibilities and tasks to get through. Strangely, I’m feeling a little sadness, emptiness this morning. Something is missing. Got to force myself through it. Music for this morning is another composer I discovered for the first time in the mid-1970s – Rachmaninov, a Russian émigré after the Revolution and a Romanticist.

Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini formed a backdrop to my Degree studies late into the night. It never fails to move me. Probably a bit self-indulgent and not the best choice for today, I am ineluctably drawn to it. I can see myself bashing away on a blue, manual typewriter at the latest essay only sleeping in the early hours of the morning. Strangely, it was an exciting time. Everything was possible.

Exercise, cleaning the car, confirming the next element of the year’s travel all have to be completed today, writing, newspaper reading, etc.. And so life goes on. Particularly today, I want to make final decisions about the Spanish trip in July. I’ve tied up accomodation and travel for May in France, June in Greece, August in Greece and Yorkshire/Lancashire at least once this year. I’ve just got Spain in July and Tenerife in November to tie down.

Might have found a reasonable property for July. It’s only available for 3 weeks and will cost £4,300 but that’s alright. It has a private pool and is near a beach. It has an outdoor kitchen and one indoors with dishwasher and washing machine. It has a good shower and WiFi – two prerequisites. There are a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms. It is in easy walking distance of the beach and a good supmurcado. It is on the edge of the city so offers plenty of restaurants if we want them.

The property is on the outskirts of Torrevieja and means flying to Alicante. Never been there before so that would be interesting. Incredibly cheap to fly in July. Quite a shock after Greek flight prices. My housekeeper remains to be persuaded. I thinks she considers it is not good enough. I may be back to the seach but I’m determined to get this done very shortly. Got to find the month of November in Tenerife before properties there are snapped up.

Monday, 13th January, 2025

A grey, warmer and dry morning. It’s forecast to be a dry week of above average temperatures so all good. Driving up to Surrey later in the morning so time for an hour or so walking.

Music for this morning is an old favourite. I listened to it so often in my garret that I thought I knew every note. It is Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto – Emperor. I dare you to listen to it and not be moved, Dear Reader.

To counter balance, I am reading the Group Chat on Whatsapp of a collection of lads (old men) from my student days. They talk a lot of frivolous, inconsequential rubbish – the sort of thing I imagine people talk in pubs to while away the time. I contribute to the Group Chat occasionally but usually I just sit and chuckle. Yesterday, most of the chat went on in the morning and then everyone was off doing their own thing – actually in the pub, watching the football, meeting family, etc. Yesterday at 4.30 pm, a lad called Chris posted:

We will have it in a orange sauce tonight 😏

Nobody picked that up until 5.00 am this morning when Peter asked:

What, Chris? Duck?

Chris got back almost immediately with:

No, loin of pork. Sorry Pete that was meant for my kids.

And there is retired life for you in a simple exchange. We shuffle along in the mundanities of life. There has to be more to it than that.

As predicted my choice of holiday rental was rejected so the search goes on. As always, it is the balance between price and quality that has to be faced. This property is lovely but cost £6,000 for 3 weeks in July. I think it’s worth it but I wait to be instructed.

After an hour of walking, drove up to Surrey avoiding the motorway. Good journey. An enjoyable drive. M is flying back to Florida next week so we went up to say goodbye and to take her birthday present. The girl who I played Hopscotch with almost 50 years ago will be 60 next week as well. Absolutely incredible and scary. She had been to a funeral of a former colleague who had died aged 75. Now that really is scary and absolutely rivets me to achieving all my ambitions quickly.

Stayed a couple of hours and then drove home the motorway route. It was quiet and easy. Home by 4.00 pm and had a banana to get me through. Then, out for another hour’s walk in falling temeperatures. Dark is still coming so quickly. It always feels later than it is. So by 5.30 pm, I have done my target and there is just time for a shower before Supper. Tonight it is Roast Salmon with Pesto Crust accompanied by Green French Beans and Asparagus Spears – and I’m hungry!

Tuesday, 14th January, 2025

Really enjoyed yesterday. Loved the drive through the Surrey Hills, through Horsham & Dorking – a drive of beautiful fields and trees, of skies and hedgerows and remarkably little traffic. Nice to give the car a run and to spend an hour listening to a political podcast against that backdrop. Half way through its 4th month, the new car has covered just 1500 miles. It can’t wait to stretch its legs with a drive to Yorkshire and to France.

Just as I was thinking back over the trip this morning, this article appeared in The Guardian and I think it is right. Ironically, I walked on Box Hill with my Grandfather in 1956. Scary to think that was nearly 60 yeaars ago. Now I drive past it regularly. M is going back to Florida so we had to see her before she flew.

Set out for a walk on the beach in 5C this morning. The waves were crashing foam on to the shingle and roaring back into the sea as the tide turned. I had my musical choice of the day playing in my head: Mendelssohn – Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave). There is something special about being here. Every day is interesting, exciting, mournful, reflective, thought-provoking.

The light, the breeze, the sky, the clouds, the waves, the colours, the sounds all evoke ever changing experiences. They make a walk always interesting and demand – maybe over demand – to be photographed.

I never fail to feel lifted and invigorated by that walk. Never seem to have time to go in the Beach Cafe & Restaurant although it is an incredibly good place to look out over the sea.

By the time I drove home the temperature had doubled to 10C/50F. Might get my shorts back out this afternoon. Very cosy pockets!

My friend, Kevin, had his car stolen from his drive over night about two weeks ago. He has heard nothing since. I was thinking about the problem that electronic, keyless entry is for security.

As long as I have my key in my pocket, a touch on the door handle and it opens. a press on the petrol flap and it opens, a hand on the bonnet and it lifts, a foot swung under the boot and it opens. For that reason, all is easily available to the teenage cloner.

One solution is to have the car report continuously to your smartphone/iPad. A car tracker will do just that. This one costs £150.00 for a 5-year service which includes 2G wireless communication showing exactly where the vehicle is down to the street and the house on a map. With that, Kevin would have been reunited with his car by now.

Wednesday, 15th January, 2025

A warm night has given way to a warm, grey morning. Sounds like the North will have more sunshine than us today and I thought that had been outlawed by the new Labour government. They are doing so many good things that I’m sure they’ll get round to it eventually. Whether it will be before abolition of the unelected House of Lords and return to EU membership or not I’m unsure. Nice to see, this morning, the bonkers Right Wind media having the wind taken out of their sails by lower inflation figures being reported.

We have been without a dishwasher for 3 WEEKS now. I can’t take much more of it. We ordered a new one immediately the old one failed but the wrong replacement was delivered so we have been waiting. There is still another week to go. I’m not sure my marriage will survive it. I’m resorting to music and humour along with plans for the future to blot out reality. Today’s music is Dvořák Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53.

At least I have made my neighbours chuckle as they went to work this morning. I don’t know if you use the Professional Networking site, Linkedin. I joined it as an Educational Professional years ago. I constantly got offers of jobs in schools and other educational institutions. When I retired, I wanted to continue my conversations with people but not be not restrict it to education. You have to list an area of expertise or competence so I described myself as Entertainments Manager. I haven’t been on the platform for quite a while and almost forgotten about it.

Near midnight last night, my lovely neighbour, Michelle – a copywriter – sent me this. She was obviously working late.

On Monday, I reported wanting to spend £6,000.00 on three weeks in a villa on the outskirts of Torrevieja. That was vetoed on price alone not least because I want another month in Tenerife in November. Ultimately. I moved my search to Alicante and an apartment. I think I’ve found one. It is decidedly more modest but has all the facilities

It will cost less than £3,000.00 for a three week stay! It has a shared Pool and a groundfloor shared Gym. It has a washing machine, dishwasher, fully equipped kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, smart TV with satellite channels including Netflix plus wifi. There a nunber of restaurants and shops within walking distance and a beach. I seriously think it will do. I’ve checked the flight prices to Alicante from Gatwick and they are ridiculously cheap. We will sleep on it tonight and a decision will be made tomorrow morning.

Thursday, 16th January, 2025

A mild night and another mild, grey start. The news over the past couple of days has been about inflation down and growth marginally up in the UK but one thing hit me yesterday from the Manchester Evening News and it is something that has always concerned me.

In the days of Tory government, Universal Benefit was introduced some 15 years ago. It rolled up benefits like income support and working tax credit to support low incomes. What it was intended to do was to encourage increased employment opportunities by not taking profits from commercial companies. It was made to look as if it was helping workers while it was really subsidising employers. As a result, employers could pay less than cost of living wages in the full knowledge that government (You and Me) would subsidise them.

In Rochdale and Oldham, one in 11 adults – about 9 per cent – requires the extra support of the low-income benefit despite being in paid employment.

This was clearly not sustainable nor equitable in the long term but sucessive governments have failed to grasp the nettle and force employers to pay a decent wage. This Labour government has increased the minimum wage and lots of businesses are shrieking but still Universal Credit is paid out. Of course, the North of England is where low pay is most prevalent and where wages have to be subsidised by government support most. The real point here is that 9% of all those requiring income support are in actually in paid work.

That conundrum has to be solved and the solution will be inflationary in the short term which is why no one can face doing it. It is almost as difficult as living without a dishwasher three weeks already. The new one should be delivered and installed a week today. It can’t come a minute too soon. To soothe the savage breast, the music I have chosen today is Brahms Violin Sonata No.1 which is a favourite over the years. I just can’t decide whether it fuels or reflects sadness.

Out for an hour’s walk in the countryside and then I have to take my Housekeeper to the Surgery for a Checkup. We are so lucky with our medical practice. The more people move here, the better it seems to step up to the challenge. Even so, I was looking at Private Health procedures in hospitals near us for future reference:

Procedure	Local Cost
Colonoscopy	£2,500.00
Cataract	£3,500.00
Hip Replacement	£5,000.00 – £10,000.00
Knee Replacement	£5,000.00 – £10,000.00

I must admit, I would be reluctant and ashamed to go down that route but the thought of putting life on hold while waiting a year or two for the operation is not really an option I could contemplate unlike those poor people on Universal Credit. I know one or two of my siblings have had to resort to Knee & Hip replacements privately and I understand why.

Friday, 17th January, 2025

A grey, cool morning. Life feels a bit mundane today. I need some sun and I need a dishwasher! I need some sense of purpose. I’ve even put the central heating on. It is 7C/45F outside. According to the World Health Organization, a temperature of 18°C is suitable for healthy people. Our house is currently 21.3C without any heating and it is beginning to feel cold. Am I unhealthy? Don’t answer that, Dear Reader.

Dishwasher will come in 6 days. Thank goodness! Sun will come as soon as I can complete a booking. The Spanish property was thrown into doubt by my fellow traveller so it has been back to the drawing board. In fact, I’m getting a bit fed up of searching. There are so many moving parts to consider. I do so much research and am so cautious before choosing that I can’t decide whether it is experience or aging that is holding me back.

How far is it from the airport now we’ve decided not to drive? How far from the beach? How far from the shops? Has it got all the facilities we require? Does it look fresh and modern or old and tired? Is it value for money. Currently, the property above seems to fit all these concerns. It is just 22 miles from Murcia International Airport and costs £4,200.00 for three weeks. It has all the facilities and looks modern and fresh. Watch this space.

Looks like it might get approval from the negotiator. I have found flights for Murcia International which will be a first. They are so cheap, they are almost being given away.

Saturday, 18th January, 2025

Another grey, cold, winter day. It was relatively warm all night not falling below 6C/43F but suddenly dropped at 7.00 this morning. I am going out to the beach in 2C/36F. I’ve got a new, quilted coat to try out.

People, places and music do it for me. They are the most evocative of memory and emotion. I was reading a Yorkshire newspaper online this morning and it listed so many places from my past that everything flooded across my memory in a rush. Not least, I pictured Castle Hill which is visible from so many places around the area just as was intended.

It encapsulates the power of place and dates back to the Hunters and Gatherers of the Mesolithic age. There appears to have been widespread travel or trade along the river valleys connecting the Yorkshire Wolds, the Peak District and the Mersey & Ribble estuaries. This high place was one of safety. We saw that on Sifnos with its Kastro – a fortified castle on a hill for fighting off invaders.

The current tower is know as the Victoria for obvious reasons having been completed towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1899 as a memorial but nothing stays the same. Permission was granted in 2022, to build a single-storey above ground restaurant/café/bar including six en-suite bedrooms, public toilets and an exhibition centre. Civilisation evolves even if humans retain their memories of days past.

In keeping with the theme, music today is an old favourite, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Composed 302 years ago, it had been nearly ruined for me by Musak – that awful telephone on-hold filler that pollutes the world. At one time, The Four Seasons was everywhere to the point of death by saturation. Coming back to it this morning was lovely like rediscovering the past afresh.

I read newspapers to keep up with old links. This morning, not only did Castle Hill come up but this article about the small, conservation hamlet of Helme where we lived for almost 20 years came up. It featured an interview with our old friends and neighbours, Tim & Mary. They are about 5 years older than us and have very different interests to us. Tim is into horse racing and ‘pub culture’. He was a solicitor for Kirklees Council. Mary was a mad keen horse rider and very into dogs. Unlike us, they are still in Helme after 45 years.

As they say, you go go travelling to see the world or stand still and let the world come to you. I’m not sure it completely holds but there is a kernel of truth in it. I prefer movement and new horizons as long as I can always come back and revisit. I believe we lose out by staying in once place too long but … each to his own.

Sunday, 5th January, 2025

Heavy rain over night. I woke at 5.00 am and my phone said the temperature outside was 11C/52F and that Greater Manchester and Leeds were both 1C/34F and snowing. My friends up there were sending me photos and the news was of the closures of Manchester, Leeds Bradford and Liverpool Airports. I’m just hoping the football match isn’t cancelled this afternoon.

I must admit my heart sinks at the memories of these mornings but it would be tomorrow when the real problems would start. Rain outside means hours in the Gym instead.

Music today is an old favourite which I’ve always found so moving. I first heard Elgar’s Enigma Variations as late as 1974 when I was teaching a Summer School in Ripon. I thought nothing of it until almost a decade later I picked it up again. Music and Time and Events all roll into one ball of emotion that is hard to quell.

Playing it in my Office this morning brings back those times with such clarity. I’ve just finished watching the most moving Romantic Drama set in the tragedy that was the First World War and Elgar’s music is so intertwined with that time. Sorry, old man syndrome. Getting maudlin. It’s one of my least attractive qualities although others run it close.

I have done just over 2hrs straight in the Gym and I am absolutely shattered. It’s a good shattered but I don’t want to lift another finger. My Housekeeper has completed the cleaning of the upstairs carpets. Her routine will be almost complete after she has valeted the sofas and touched up the tiny scratches that day to day living leaves on paintwork. I don’t like to interfere so stay out of the way on these occasions. At least the big match is on this afternoon so I can relax in comfort.

Just had a Direct Message from Sue Wilson in the Charente. Although she is living in France and UK, she is thinking of selling her Midlands property and buying near us on the South Coast. I think she’s rather been taken by my photographs. If you know the Charente, you would wonder why but I’ve told her that we welcome all immigrants.

Monday, 6th January, 2025

I’m weather obsessed at the best of times. This weekend the world caught up with me. It is not so often that the North of England makes all the headlines in newspapersbut this morning Ripon, Leeds, Oldham are all featured on the frontpages.

These were the days when we got up so much earlier than others and set off specifically to get to work and assess the conditions. It looks like we may have had an impossible task this morning and the school closure may have been preordained. The next iteration of my old school had already put up this screen.

It was put up from home by my IT Technician from more than 15 years ago. I trained him in Teach First and he is now Head of IT – a very satisfying conclusion. How a callow youth can become serious adult.

Talking about callow youths – here are some more. For those who care about these things, it is Epiphany and in Greece people greet each other with Χριστός ἀνέστη! or Christ is risen. Yes, I realise how bonkers it is but we all have our lunacies. This morning, on Sifnos Island, in Kamares Harbour where we used to live, the callow youths dive into the icy waters for a gilded cross (electro-plated) tossed by the local witch doctor (sorry, priest).

While my health is back to excellent and my weight is well on its way down again, Pauline, who is never ill … is not well. This morning she has had to see her GP about a recent problem and this afternoon I am taking her to Southlands Hospital in Shoreham-by-Sea prior to an operation on Wednesday. It is an uncomfortable and nervous week.

Music for today was composed in 1936 by Samuel Barber and is the ultimate in pathos. Rarely does it leave a dry eye in the house. it arrived at just the right moment, when America was still hurting from the Great Depression and Europe was sliding into war. I challenge anyone not to be moved by it.

Tuesday, 7th January, 2025

Weighing things up today. Booking multiple travel arrangements and filling the 2025 calendar to provide all the work a real purpose. But first, we welcome this gorgeous day with a walk by the beach.

Looks wonderful but actually was very cold with a biting off-shore breeze. An hour was enough and then home for coffee.

Our Annual Travel Insurance Policy is provided ‘free’ with our Black Account at our Bank. I say free but the Account costs us £35.00 per month or £420.00 per year. Banking is never really ‘free’. We just pay openly or invisibly. We have used an openly payed for Premier Banking service partly because of the services that come with it. It allowed us a huge, free, instant overdraft facility which was useful when we were building abroad.

Of these existing services, Travel Insurance, Airport Lounge Access and Mobile Phone Insurance are the most valuable to us. Everything else is doubling up things we have elsewhere or things I don’t know about. Why would I want a Concierge Service or a Ticket Booking Service? What is Cinema & Film Rental?

Travel Insurance has always been valuable and made the account virtually pay for itself. Each year we have an unlimited, worldwide travel policy fully covered. Now, of course, we are in our 70s. That brings a surcharge of £75.00 per person. We also have existing medical conditions which bring an extra surcharge. Having just sorted out the 2025 renewal, that ‘free’ policy will cost an extra £426.00. Having had cancer is costing me about £250.00 per year although I am fitter than I have been for a long time.

I’ve just done a comparative quote travel insurance search and this £1,286.13 is the cheapest equivalent offer I could find. Makes me feel a bit better about my ‘free’ policy. Suffice it to say, I won’t be buying All Clear now.

Wednesday, 8th January, 2025

A crystal clear sky full of stars gave us quite a cold night and there was a hint of frost on the roofs this morning first thing. Ignoring that I’ve been out for an early walk because my job is Ambulance driver this morning. I am taking Pauline to Southlands Hospital in Shoreham-by-Sea. She is nil by mouth because she is being operated on in the early afternoon. She doesn’t react particularly well to a General Anaesthetic so she’s not looking forward to it and it will be an uncomfortable operation for anyone.

My friend, Kevin, is 75 today. That makes me feel a lot better. Turns out all that group were older me. I even went out with an older woman. Kevin had his car stolen a fortnight ago and has heard nothing about it yet. Must be a nightmare situation. To add to that, he has Flu’ and is 75. Makes you wonder if life is worth living any more.

Just 5 years ago, Kevin and I were reunited after almost 50 years apart. It was an emotional but life-affirming experience and we have remained in contact almost daily since. We live at opposite ends of the country but the web has allowed us to bridge that gap.

Of course, I hope my wife comes through her operation and lives another day or two but the most important event happens tomorrow. The new dishwasher is being delivered, plumbed in and fitted with its kitchen door and I no longer have to do the drying up. For two weeks now, it has felt like the 1950s in our house. It’s been like losing an arm … no, worse. It’s been like losing the internet. There, I’ve said it.

We have ordered a good quality Bosch built-in machine which automatically comes with a full, 5-year warranty. I hope it will be a lot longer before I have to go through this again.

Thursday, 9th January, 2025

Well, the operation went better than well. The patient was first on the list and in the theatre early. She was relieved to find she was being operated on by the surgeon she had built a good relationship with and the whole thing went so well, I was able to collect her in the evening.

The hospital is lovely. The people are fantastic. It is about 25 mins drive from the house but that isn’t a problem. Our nearest hospital is in Worthing which is not much nearer but where I would go in an emergency although we have an ambulance centre just round the park so it should be quite efficient.

Soon after we got home, the official results of the procedure were input by the medical staff and uploaded on the NHS app. We were able to read about the success of the day. Pauline was much more proud of one line in her notes that said:

Clinical Frailty Score: 1 – very fit.

Where 1 is best and 10 is most frail, this was pointed out to me a few times last night until she fell asleep after the stress of the day.

But, enough of that. Today is DISHWASHER DAY. Wonder of wonders. It will be delivered and fitted mid-morning so I’m going out for an early walk. My weight is coming down quite rapidly at the moment and my fitness levels really are back now. It feels so good after a lengthy fight. Now been alcohol-free for 130 days. In fact, I’m getting addicted to alcohol-free Cabernet Sauvignon – a whole glass each evening.

Sky News has been running an article about the boom in use of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy is beginning to turn the tide in UK. I am proud that I haven’t had to resort to anything like that but have done it through personal discipline and effort. It makes me feel better about myself.

The worst has happened and I am depressed. Currys have turned up with the wrong dishwasher. Our order has been cancelled and will have to start again. I will be drying up by hand again tonight! Actually, we may even reassess our order. We have since found a better one and are going out to look at it ….. New dishwasher ordered and I have to wait 13 days for installation. Life just isn’t worth living!

Although, of course, it is. There may be unfriendly people in the world but they will get their just deserts. There may be unhelpful situations in one’s life but they will fade in the great scheme of things. There will always be beauty. Gorgeous walk in the Marina this afternoon.

Friday, 10th January, 2025

A cool night. We went down to 0C/32F and the car had some frost on it this morning. Thank goodness for auto-defrost facilities on modern cars. Greater Manchester and North Yorkshire saw -7C/19F which always makes me think of those sleeping rough. It is a situation likely to bring death to the undernourished. Tonight will be even colder according the forecast. There will be no shorts wearing for a while.

It is ironic just as the news is dominated by wildfires in Los Angeles and the Copernicus climate change service report that last year was the warmest on record, the first to breach a symbolic threshold, and brought with it deadly impacts like flooding and drought, scientists have said.Two new datasets found 2024 was the first calendar year when average global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale. The past decade has seen every year in the top 10 hottest on record. Beginning to look a lot like global warming …

Just as the idiot, Trump, is selling Drill, Baby, Drill (for oil) to his equally idiot supporters, so the world is on fire as The Times cartoon makes brilliantly clear this morning. They are all really in LaLa Land all ready to be exploited by the far right Trump/Musl axis.

Talking to my friend, Kevin, who lives in North Yorkshire. He got up the day after Boxing day to find his car – a white Ford Puma – had been stolen from his drive in a relatively quiet, marginally rural area above Leeds. My first thought was someone struggling to get home from Christmas celebrations late at night had seen an opportunity. However, Kevin says both sets of keys were in his house and the ignition is electronic so needing sophisticated technology to start. Hardly an impulse reveller’s ability. And so it has proved. Nothing abandoned at the roadside. No sightings or police action at all. It is now 15 days since he reported it and nothing. Can you imagine it?

A grey and chilly day down at the beach – just 5C/41F – and the breeze made it feel much colder. An hour’s walking was plenty outside. Have to do the rest in the Gym today.

Saturday, 11th January, 2025

Bit of frost again this morning after a cold night. A wonderful day in prospect. Sunshine all the way. My weight had dropped again this morning which explains why I felt so hungry all day yesterday. Keep having to tell myself it is all in a good cause.

I don’t know if you read the Daily Telegraph. I do although I am not a natural fit. It is mainly for those who want to return to 1955 and for the politically insane. I read it to counterbalance more sensible, main stream political philosophy. However, I think this professor is absolutely correct as he strips back the hype about weight loss.

For some time now, new ‘experts’ have advertised the efficacy of all sorts of weird and wonderful methods. Professor Frayn debunks them all and insists that calories in v calories out ultimately is the only thing that works. As he says in this article, you only have to look at pictures of workers leaving an Oxford car factory in the 1950s. They weren’t driving home. They were all on bikes or they walked. They ate smaller meals and burned far more calories.

I began my fight back from the effects the cancer treatment had had on my body when I flew back fom Athens on August 27^th last year – 137 days ago. I had realised how unfit and overweight I had become. It had come as something of a revelation. I was shocked how it had crept up on me and I made a resolution as soon as I landed.

I have not drunk any alcohol since that day. I have restricted myself to 1500 calories per day and not missed a single day of walking 7.5 miles. I am walking at least 53 miles every week and around 213 miles every month. I have already walked 1000 miles since I started the campaign.

As a result, since the end of August, I have lost 1/6^th or 17% of my bodyweight and massively improved my fitness particularly my cardiovascular endurance. Just weigh yourself, Dear Reader, and then divide it by 6. If you lost that, how would you feel? My blood pressure has improved enormously as has my INR.

My wife has had to put up with this regime both activity and diet. As a result, she weighs less than she has done for 40 years and, as the surgeon noted this week, she is very fit. The downside of this is she constantly needs new clothes. Our door is repeatedly battered by brochures from clothing companies. We are regularly receiving and sometimes returning things. Today, will be a trip to Worthing Pier. Opposite is M&S where she has seen the style of jeans/trousers that she likes. I prefer baggy clothes on little people but there it is.

Fortunately, the jeans were rubbish so it cost me nothing although I did buy a couple of bottles of alcohol-free red wine. I am 137 alcohol-free days and counting. I’m thinking of converting to become a Methodist Temperance Society Blue Ribboner – what do you think? Yes, there’s going to be a hell of a party when this is over.

Sunday, 29th December, 2024

A grey and surprisingly cold morning. We were half the temepratures in Manchester & Leeds this morning. Still, I was brave and went out for an early walk by the sea. In the dampness of very low cloud, we were met by an untidy gaggle of Mods on Scooters. It was like a time warp apart from they were all 70 yr olds tying to recreate the 1960s. They were all wearing Parkas. If you know what they are, you are old, Dear Reader.

They were the only bright but tawdry sight on this grey day at the seaside. However, the walk was chance to talk over plans for the new year and travel. Originally, we intended to spend a month driving in France but that has now changed. We are going to rethink a Spanish drive instead as we had wanted to do last year.

Portsmouth is not far away from us so we will go Portsmouth – Bilbao and then drive across Spain to Valencia region via Zaragoza. It’s quite a long sailing time. On the way out, it involves 2 nights on board but only one in return. When I was young, I might have settled for a reclining seat but not now. It has to be a comfortable cabin.

They only have 4-berth cabins even for 2 people so there is plenty of room. With a window and a TV, the cabin + car is £1140.00 return which compares quite well with the ferry we used to take down the Adriatic to Greece a decade ago.

Arriving in Bilbao at 8.00 am, I will then to a drive across Spain to Zaragoza (3hrs). Stay there one night and drive on to Valencia (3hrs). I’m looking for a property for 3 weeks by the sea before retracing our steps to Bilbao. Might be nice to spend a day there exploring before the ferry home.

I’m not bothered if the property has a pool if we are near to the beach. It has to have:

• Outdoor Space / big Balcony
• Good Wi-Fi
• Air Con.
• Washing Machine
• Equipped Kitchen
• TV
• Parking
• Access to Supermakets & Restaurants

Monday, 30th December, 2024

Exactly 46 years ago today, we got married in West Yorkshire. It was in the middle of a blizzard across the Pennines. We married in Huddersfield Registry Office but had a blessing in the local church just to satisfy my mother. Lots of lovely people came. It was an enjoyable, party day.

It hadn’t started well when we got up to find the cold water tank in the loft of our old, stone coaching house had frozen over and then defrosted quickly with the central heating and poured through the loft door on to the stairs carpet. Really kind people who ran a carpet cleaning company immediately came round, fixed the tank and cleaned and dried out the stairs carpet in the morning before we left for the ceremony. Everything, ultimately, went well.

Last night, as we reminisced about that day, the lights went out. Pauline had just put on the dishwasher. After going to the fusebox, we realised the heating element in the 8 year old dishwasher had triggered the problem and was no longer working. It had been in the new kitchen when we bought the house so it’s done well.

This morning, we are spending our wedding anniversary ordering a new dishwasher and asking for an urgent delivery and fitting. Can you imagine having to wash dishes by hand? It will be just £499.00 for a new one but when you add delivery, integrated fitting, removal of packaging and the old machine plus 5 years full replacement cover, it will cost exactly £700.00. What really sells it to me is the ability to control it over WiFi and using Alexa voice commands. That’s progress!

Went to look at the dishwasher model at Curry’s. Told them the story and they knocked £50.00 off so all good …. until they told us it wouldn’t be delivered until Jan. 9th. Who can wash up by hand for 10 days? The other downside was that my Housekeeper’s eyes spotted a new carpet cleaner which she’d been secretly admiring for a few days apparently. That did add another £180.00 to the total but …. I made it an anniversary present so that’s alright then.

After all that spending, we went for a relaxing walk by the beach. It was 10C/50F but felt colder with the breeze off the sea. Even so, there were families with picnic baskets on the beach and kids with bare legs splashing around in the lapping waves. Why don’t kids feel the cold? – no sense I suppose. I was desperate to get home for a hot cup of coffee.

Lovely celebratory meal of grilled Halibut Steaks, Stuffed Mushrooms and Roast Cherry Tomatoes accompanied by Alcohol-free Prosecco. Felt quite drunk after two glasses of that.

Tuesday, 31st December, 2024

The year is going out with a customary mild but grey day. Been out for an early hour’s walk to get the day going and because Amazon are delivering a parcel at lunchtime. Walking always seems to facilitate thought and conversation. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. Often it is the time for idle chat but there are occasions when we store up difficult conversations for the open air. Today, we talked over travel plans and reviewed whether we are making sensible decisions before it is committed.

I talk in my head constantly. It is like an inner monologue in which I discuss my thoughts and feelings with people who I have known but are only present in my head. This morning I read an article in a newspaper about exactly that. The writer also has an inner monologue and thought everyone did. I, on the other hand, always thought that I was odd. Actually, my head is the space for dialogue between me and past places, people and events I have experienced. It is a place for celebration and regret. I’m quite excited to find there are other people like me. What is scary is to think that some people have nothing going on in their head a lot of the time.

I used to have long debates/arguments with my mother for years after she had died. I talk to friends and acquaintances from the past all the time whether I still talk to them in real life or not. I visit places from my past in my head although the digital revolution has made realtime dialogue with distant people and places so much easier now.

This morning I have spent some time in: Kamares, Sifnos, Socrates Square, Thessaloniki and outside the Parliament Building, Athens in Greece, outside the Duomo Milan and on the Rialto Bridge, Venice in Italy, looking at the New York skyline from Fifth Avenue in the US and near Brighton Beach and Blackpool sea front in UK. All of these places I have visited in real time via live webcams. These photos are snatched live this morning. At the same time, I have been chatting to distant friends online.

The article reports a large study completed by a psychology professor at the University of Nevada concludes that:

Most people have an inner voice roughly 25% of the time. What that means, he says, is that some people never have words going on, and a few people have words going on all the time, and a lot of people have words going on some of the time.
However, our brains are miraculous and extremely weird things, and everyone has a different way of processing the world. Some people just process in pictures.

Can you imagine having to process complex concepts or even emotions only graphically? I can’t. Words are so important with their deftness of meaning and intricacy of history.

Wednesday, 1st January, 2025

Happy New Year to all my readers. Every year I say it …. to you and myself. Can you believe yet another year gone? This year, I’m going to say, Can you believe yet another new year of opportunity? That is how I am going to approach it. There are things I have put off or others have put off for me that I am determined to achieve this year. It will happen is the way I start the new year. People, places, reconnections are the order of 2025!

This year, we will be 74. It will happen. You see, it’s easy. Last night I wished 42 people Happy New Year by Whatsapp and Text. Almost everyone replied last night including our gorgeous, slightly drunken neighbours. A few didn’t manage it until this morning but that’s fine. The new year will be one of reconnections.

While I was at home drinking alcohol-free Prosecco (surprisingly nice … if you grit your teeth), I received a lovely photo from M&K on the piste in Chamonix as a sharp contrast to their Florida home. They have always loved skiing. Pauline & I can’t see why. We’ve seen enough snow to last us a lifetime. But, when you’re young anything is possible. Mind you, they will be 60 this year and I had already walked my 7 miles and done 90 mins in the Gym.

I heard from my sister, Jane, at 3.00 am with this picture from Horseguards Hotel where she had a good view of the firework display on the Thames. She obviously enjoyed herself which is the main thing but I think I got a better view on TV. At least it was dry and warm last night for city revellers.

I heard from another sister, Cathy, who told me she hasn’t been well for the past three weeks, unable to eat and lost a lot of weight. Feeling better now, they have gone off to a Spa Hotel in Hastings to see in the new year. I hope she’s restoring her health by eating lots of Breakfasts. Hastings is an interersting place that we considered buying a house in originally.

Heard about the death of the DJ, Johnnie Walker at the age of 79. It does seem such a young age now. Just 5 years away for us. He was one of those I lobbied the Wilson government about in the late 1960s as they tried to abollish Pirate radio stations in favour of Statist ones like the BBC as I saw it then. Radio Caroline and Radio London blared out of an old sterogram that Bob bought in a Jumble Sale. I wasn’t having a government controlling me!!!

And so it goes on – rebellion and anarchy in our 70s. That is what life is about. Taking risks, Dear Reader. We must do it! My Housekeeper is using her new ‘gift’ to spring clean the carpets. Life doesn’t get much riskier than that. I’m off to the Gym for another day of pain.

Thursday, 2nd January, 2025

What day is it? It’s felt like Monday all week. Something should be happening. Should I be going back to work? Outside it says is just 4C/39F but it feels really warm in the sunshine. Keep hearing that Greater Manchester is drowning but here looks rather like the Med. in winter. Strong, low sunshine out of an azure blue sky.

Just had an epiphany walking through Rustington High Street. I walked straight past the famous Pie Shop smelling of freshly baked pies and on to spend £50.00 in the Health Food Shop. What is going on?

Staying alive, staying alive … it’s just an attempt at staying alive. These are constituents of my Housekeeper’s home made Muesli. I have to say that, 4 months down the line, I am enjoying them. I have to say that.

Chatted to my old friend, John-R this morning. He was born in a place called Whitley Bay. I must admit I had never heard of it in 1969 when we first met. Actually, I wasn’t aware of anywhere North of Derby before I started applying to Universities. Anyway, John came from Whitley Bay and immediately told me how beautiful it was there. Great beaches and lovely scenery. I took his word for it but I’ve never been there. This morning, over Breakfast, Whitley Bay stared out at me. I contacted him to tell him that he and the girls from Whitley Bay were famous. I don’t think he knows any girls.

Out walking this afternoon, the beachside path was quite busy as people soaked up the sunshine. It may have been a little cold for ‘normal people’ swimming. But it was a lovely day to just stand and stare, dream dreams and drink in the sunshine through tired eyes.

You really should try it, Dear Reader. It is rejuvenating. Just an hour or so to do in the Gym and then I can relax.

Friday, 3rd January, 2025

Must have been cold over night. Bit of frost on the lawns this morning. Glorious sunrise. The beachside was magical and largely deserted. Many workers had gone back and the rest must have been lazing in bed.

An hour of sun and exercise and everything feels better. Tasks to get through today as well as a Gym session. Trying to get Housekeeper to complete cleaning all the carpets before she goes in for her operation next week. Ordered her some extra cleaning fluid for her Wedding Anniversary present to that end. My generosity knows no bounds!

In her spare time, she’s roasting a turkey for supper tonight and to make stock/soup for the next few weeks. Amazing buy in Sainsburys. A 4.6kg Taste the Difference Norfolk Black turkey which had sold for £60.00 before Xmas cost just £8.00 today.

Still trying to pin down accomodation and travel arrangements for two months – June in Valencia and November in Adeje so that we can have things sorted out and they give us targets to work towards.

Had a knee trembling experience yesterday as I did my Gym workout. I was watching a beautiful, sensitive, delightful, heartbreaking film called Birdsong on Netflix. It is a vivid depiction of the horror of war in 1914 but soft presentation of love and sexual attraction between two, youngish people. The contrast is deliberately accentuated as the film cuts from one to the other and back constantly.

After the war, many survivors reported that the abiding memory was not of the screams of men or the sound of gunfire, but of something seemingly hugely out of context:

It was the birdsong, the birdsong in that short gap when the artillery barrage stopped and before the whistles blew for us to get out of the trench and start running – it was beautiful.

The stark contrast between the mindlessness of men set against the eternal beauty of the natural world is symbolised in the contrast between men blowing each other up in muddy squalor set against the movements of a man and a woman making love in comparative comfort.

At that very point, I thought of my Father. He was someone who was present in my life but who I never really knew. I was 14 years old when he died at the age of 49. He had been a Captain and then a Major in the Royal Engineers and he fought / built bridges in the Sinai Peninsula & Palestine during the Second World War. I was young but I wasn’t stupid and I suddenly realised how little I had understood of the experiences that had made him the man he was and why he seemed so remote and so serious.

Saturday, 4th January, 2025

We have frost this morning. You can even see it on the roofs. We are just 3C/37F and it looks cold. At one point last night we were colder than Manchester. Very cold place Manchester! I am insulated in my Office with my renewed interest and enjoyment of music. I have taken out a subscription to Amazon Music. This morning, I am reliving the 1980s with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony – Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68.

In the 1980s, I used to drive back across the Pennines in my silver Honda Prelude sports car with the Pastoral Symphony at full volume and only the sheep to be disturbed. It was glorious. A triumph of Romanticism over Reality. I really am a romantic at heart but with a core of realism grinding along in the background.

The 1980s. I wouldn’t go back there for anything. I am happy in 2025 with all the improvements of life not least the fact that my CD player sits idly on the desk unplayed for months, years. Everything is downloaded now at the call of a voice and playable around the house on TVs and Amazon Alexa speakers. The whole process points up the distance we have travelled in my lifetime. In 1965, my grandfather gave me (and I admit a bit anachronistically) a wind up gramaphone and a collection of 78s. Large, already discontinued gramaphone records of opera, popular 1930s music hall songs and some classical pieces like Handel’s Largo which I fell in love with.

For a brief spell between 1966 and 1973, I listened to what would be called ‘pop’ music and Handel met the Moody Blues inside my head at least although only by chance because I never had a record player of my own. I remember buying a cassette player in 1974 and playing it until it just ate tapes, shredded them and spat them out again. Chopin was loved and destroyed in that. My first car with a CD player was in the late 1980s and that was revolutionary. Today, although I still have a CD player in the car (I think), it has never been used. Everything is downloaded from my phone and played through Android Auto app. So Amazon Music will go anywhere seamlessly.

Out for a walk and to the fish shop. In the time it took to write the first half of the Blog entry, the temperature outside had risen from 1C – 6C and things were brightening up. That’s the power of Beethoven. Actually, as so often, temperatures completely fooled me again. A strong beeze off the sea made 6C feel like -6C so I decided to not put myself through that discomfort. The Gym will be nice this morning.

We’ve learnt that when we see good fish to buy it immediately. It is often in short supply and disappears quickly. The UK catch is bought up by European markets or was before Brexit. When we see Locally Caught Sea Bass advertised, we buy it in bulk. It isn’t cheap but the difference between farmed sea bass – usually from Greek waters – and wild fish caught around here has to be tasted to be believed. It is much more expensive, rarely on show but well worth the wait. Today 10kgs of fresh fish including 2 sides of Salmon, 6 large Sea Bass and 2 kgs of quality Tuna cost £320.00. Healthy eating isn’t cheap.