Sanders Blog

25th November, 2012

Sunday papers, fresh coffee, Politics on Sunday, two football matches but no goals. Smoked salmon for lunch and Pheasant for Dinner. Torrential rain seems to be falling everywhere but here. The Chelsea match – twenty five or so miles from our home – was played in sweeps of monsoon rain. Here it was dry. Our old home area in West Yorkshire seemed to be reporting raging rivers and inches of rain to come.

People in Greece are picking their olives and taking them to press although Skiathan Man says many think they can buy olive oil cheaply enough to not bother with the back-breaking work of picking themselves. We left just a little early this year to pick any of ours but Pauline cured two kilner jars of ours very successfully last year.

26th November, 2012

A pleasant, mild morning enhanced by highlights of England’s Test victory. I have been captivated by a family photograph that David Pritchard sent me. It looks like it was taken in the garden in Repton. He thinks it was circa 1925:

As I understand it, the photograph features from left to right:

Granddad Sanders (Richard Watthew [Dick] b. 1889) and on his lap is Auntie Kath (b 1921); Sitting high is Kessie (Kate Anne Kesterton) (b. 1887) and next to her is the Grandmother none of us got to meet, Mabel Lilian née Flook (b 1894). Sitting next to Mabel is Great Grandfather Edwin Thomas (b. 1860). On the grass, with his head on Great Grandfather’s knee is Eric (b. 1915), my Dad looking exactly as I did at that age. Next to him on the grass is Auntie Marj. (b. 1919). Seated on the right of Great Grandfather is Great Aunt Susan Sarah (b. 1886) and Great Aunt-in-Law Annie (‘Nance’ b. 1833), wife of Dad’s brother, Edwin Thomas (b. 1891), who is sitting in the deckchair on the right with Mary Kate Delamont Sanders (b. 1920), later Mary Long, sitting on the front edge of his chair.

I have decided to start with a difficult-to-do character, my Grandmother who I never met, Mabel Lilian née Flook (b 1894) because she was incarcerated in a Mental Asylum later euphemised with the name Pastures Hospital Mickleover from 1930 until her death in 1962. She gave birth to her final child, Auntie Edwina, and, within two years, was incarcerated never to return home. I have submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Derby Records Office.

27th November, 2012

First thing I had my annual review with my doctor. It was excellent which was pleasing.

I’ve had a reply to my FIR which gives me real hope of some answers. Twitter-feed informed me that Flooding is making access to Repton from north of the Trent extremely difficult.… and I was back in my youth remembering the fields of floods cutting off Willington. It is still raining in the North but, in Surrey, everything is calm. We are almost at the end of November and we’ve used the central heating for two hours since our return from Greece. We are told that really cold weather is on the way and yet our apartment is built to such standards of insulation that body heat of two adults is enough to keep it warm. Our heating and hot water bill last year was just £100.00.

I cooked smoked salmon risotto this evening and it was really enjoyable.

28th November, 2012

For the past couple of weeks, Pauline & I have been going to the Nuffield Health Centre in West Byfleet and swimming half a kilometre each morning. We are really enjoying it, getting quicker at completing it and recovering much sooner. From Monday, we are going to start adding lengths until we are up to the kilometre. The Health Centre is coming towards the completion of its total refurbishment and, next week, will be installing dozens of new pieces of machinery. I’m going to get really fit watching that happen.

29th November, 2012

Up at 6.00 am and out at 6.30 am to be at the Walk-in Centre for my blood test. It was freezing and we had to stand outside for ten minutes. Back for coffee and to watch Heir Hunters, a television programme I’ve become addicted to. We can’t go swimming today because the burglar alarm is being serviced at an unspecified time. I debated whether to get the step ladders out to make the service easy but, when the engineer arrived, he was a 6ft. 7in., 23 year old boxer who could do the whole job without going on tiptoes. The burglar alarm – linked to a call out centre and the police – cost £240.00 per year but the service takes ten minutes.

Pauline made MORE mince pies while completing three different lots of housework at the same time. I was more ambitious and read the paper and then turned my attention to financial matters. Sort of Men’s Work! We are consummate savers. After using our full ISA allowances, we like to use a savings account that we can dump spare cash in to. Three or four years ago, I was getting 4.2% including a bonus. Two years ago, this was down to 3.1%. Today, it is impossible to beat 2.2% for an easy access, on-line saver. I am going to use the Post Office account for this so we can easily move money around easily whether we are in Greece or UK.

30th November, 2012

Glorious blue skies and strong, low sun all around. Autumn leaves still clothe the trees but, this morning, are crusted with frost for an hour or two before the sun burns it off.

Out just after 9.00 am for the weekly shop. The Tesco supermarket is already busy. It is a 24 Hr. megastore with an M&S attached. The carpark is big enough to swallow half of the residents of outer London. Christmas is everywhere. Personally, I hate Christmas and all that attends upon it. Fortunately, my wife is of a similar opinion so we reinforce each other’s predjudices quite selfishly. I saw an advert for half price, artificial Christmas Trees today and thought, if I  made Christmas Trees, what time of year would I feel it necessary to halve the price in order to persuade people to buy them. After a nano-second’s thought, I decided that July would be a good time to offer half price Christmas Trees. As it got closer to Christmas, and people became keener to secure a tree, I would feel confident to increase the price. Adverts like this rely on the herd instinct to be infected by the celebratory instinct and to suspend critical thought and rational judgement.

By the time we finished shopping, cars were looking for the last few parking spaces in this vast carpark which one needs Olympic training just to get across. Home for coffee and then out for a wonderful swim. I’m beginning to feel better everytime I do it. Later, I had to go for my annual diabetic review. All my readings were fantastic and I left the surgery skipping.

1st December, 2012

It cannot be the last month of the year already. Happy December everyone.

Skiathan Man drew my attention to an interesting article in The Guardian – a newspaper which is a bit too boring for me normally. In the month before we left Sifnos, crates of beautiful logs started to appear in delivery yards. The local tile shop was ‘branching’ out (no pun intended) by stocking a few crates. They certainly seemed to sell quite quickly although I remember thinking that a crate of logs would go up in smoke in no time at all. The Greeks think their electricity is expensive. I honestly don’t think it is much more than ours although I’m sure many homes aren’t insulated as well as ours. I think there is also an anti-establishment, anti-authority thing going on. Property tax bills are being tied to electricity supply and there is a revolutionary spirit abroad – We’ll show them. We won’t use their electricity. We’ll live simply off the land. We’ll collect our own firewood. They couldn’t do that on Sifnos and I don’t think they’ll find buying logs is a great deal cheaper than paying for electricity.

18th November, 2012

Disaster today. My huge, desktop coputer has thrown a wobbly and gone into cardiac arrest. In truth, I had known it was coming for a few days. The on/off switch has been temperamental. It is either the switch or the power supply which is fortunate. At least the hard drive storage is alright. Now, I’ve got to find a company to help me with this.

19th November, 2012

At 9.00 am we will go to PCWorld repair desk. If that is no good, I have a number of choices around Woking. We also have to fit in a swim at the Health Centre and picking Phyllis & Colin up from Gatwick Airport. I took the CPU of my set up down to PCWorld which has now been amalgamated with Dixons/Currys. Their technical centres have been fantastic sources of support but now they have been instructed to deal with only a small number of branded products. They couldn’t deal with mine which came from Evesham Computers in 2004. Evesham went out of business in 2008. I did a quick search in the area for independent tradesmen and settled on SurreyCPR, a very local, one man firm who had an excellent website. I phoned him at 9.00 am and he was with us by 12.00 pm. The problem turned out to be the power supply unit (£50.00) but this meant I needed a new display card (£20.00). I asked for a new DVD Writer to be fitted (£30.00) and the hour’s call out was £50.00. The total of £150.00 was wonderful and I would have paid it three times over. The computer cost me £2,700.00 eight years ago.

Phyllis & Colin were supposed to be landing at 18.15. I monitored Gatwick’s arrivals board and was amazed that the flight was estimated to arrive thirty minutes early. Because we were concerned about rush hour traffic and finding parking, we left an hour before they were due in. It turned out that there was virtually no traffic, car parking was easily accessible and then Phyllis & Colin were forced to stay on the plane because its landing was early. The passport control was a crowded nightmare and we ended up waiting for a very long time.

20th November, 2012

On Monday, while I was waiting for a computer repair, I used my laptop to continue my research. I subscribe to an on-line service called Ancestry.co.uk which gives me immediate links to most of the important databases. I managed to locate my Great, Great Grandfather, Richard Sanders born in Birstall, Leicestershire in 1821 and his wife, Anne who was born in Desford, Leicestershire in 1828. I know David Pritchard has already covered this ground but I feel obligated to at least rehearse it myself before adding to his research. (Hope you are enjoying your Sunday, David. I was wondering who The Observer reader was. At last you’ve revealed yourself.) Today is a wet day – grey and rather gloomy. The temperature is only 12C/54F. We will have our swim but otherwise will stay tucked up and I will have time to go on with my research.

I Googled the name Mabel Lilian Flook / Mabel Lilian Sanders and came up with a piece of unformatted database data entitled FLOOK WILLS. This is what it said.

MARTHA ANN  </b>  WICKWAR GLS WID </b> 1928  to  FLOOK, GEO WM .Brewers Clerk  &  SANDERS, Mabel Lilian w/o Richard

It so happens that this was the year of the birth of her last child, Edwina, and just before her incarceration in The Pastures Hospital. I will raise this with my new best relative in the Flook family.

21 st November, 2012

The Greek newspapers note that increased optimism about a deal for Greece in Europe is bolstering the value of the Euro. Samaras is playing a much more cunning hand than I ever gave him credit for. I didn’t think he had it in him. He is holding a shaky, flaky coalition together while taking an angrily sceptical population, kicking and screaming through the pain of major surgery without much sedative being offered. However, even Samaras, having got Greece to accept its side of the bargain, needs Europe now to honour its part.

22nd November, 2012

We drove to West Byfleet station and caught the 10.00 am train to Waterloo which only stopped at Surbiton. From Waterloo, we took the Underground to Green Park where we got off and walked to Fortnum & Mason. As one enters the shop, it looks a bit like an Eighteenth Century Knocking Shop. Further inside, it looks like an upmarket Woolworths gearing up for Christmas. We bought lots of things for our Greek friends – specialist teas, coffees, chocolates, biscuits, etc. Then, laden down with our purchases, we went across the road to sit in an alley (That alley turned out to be the Burlington Arcade.) drinking fresh coffee (at what turned out to be Laduree, world famous Parisian cake makers and inventors of the famous double-decker macaroon.). You will note how tired Pauline looks. Anybody who tried to shop with me would look just as exasperated. I am not a happy shopper. Sitting drinking coffee and watching the world go by is more my sort of thing. Later, we went back to Green Park for the Underground to London Bridge for Borough Market. This was absolutely fantastic. Every type of food produce one could imagine was on sale. We even met a Greek girl from Sparta who was selling olive tea. We tried it and bought a bag. We bought four more pheasants for less than we paid in Yorkshire and then had lunch in a fish restaurant (The Fish! Kitchen) in the heart of the market. We had fish, chips and mushy peas – wonderful quality fish in beer batter, mint flavoured peas and excellent chunky chips with a cold bottle of Trebbiano. The bill – £60.00 and no newspaper wrapping in sight.

We were home for 4.00 pm and then I slept for a couple of hours. I was exhausted. I’m certainly not a shopper. Recovered in time to watch a delightful, new semi-comedy drama called Last Tango in Halifax and starring Derek Jacobi, Anne Reid & Sarah Lancashire. It was wonderful and so was the landscape.

23rd November, 2012

Early trip to Tescos for the weekly shop this morning. By 10.30 am it is so teaming with silver shoppers that we cannot bear it. On this particular morning, however, I am really struggling after so much shopping yesterday. I am absolutely exhausted and really only want to lie down in a darkened room. Still, Pauline is determined to make mincemeat today in preparation for mince pies. I don’t know why. We only eat them all. We even cancelled swimming today and sat quietly with a smoked salmon salad for lunch before doing a few jobs. I had some writing to do and phone calls to make. Pauline steeped her dried fruit in brandy. Fortunately, I arrived just as she was spooning through the mixture and I offered to taste it. I was allowed.

For Dinner tonight I cooked braised rabbit  and served it with savoy cabbage and baked potato. The rabbit was bought in France so, of course, it came whole including its head. The eyes looked at me as I severed it. I’m not al Qaeda, I said to the eyes. They didn’t look convinced. Tonight, there is a rabbit’s head rolling around in my bin. Having said that, the rabbit was fantastically tasty and produced a wonderful gravy which really complemented the meal. Sorry eyes.

24th November, 2012

I was born in to the United Kingdom. The Commonwealth was all around me. By the time I had reached my late twenties, alarm at the rising tide of immigration had made me English. The Northern towns where I lived and taught had developed substantial Asian enclaves, almost no-go areas at times. I started to travel abroad – to Greece, to Italy and to France. I became decidedly European. I am still fervently European but my allegiances are being sorely tested. I live half the year in Greece and shop during the other half in France. I love to travel and stay in Italy and yet the ever expanding Union is testing the patience and pocket of all around me. Defending my European credentials is becoming harder. Economic migrants from both Bulgaria and Romania are much poorer than the rest of the EU, with GDP per capita of about 33% of the EU average but will soon have free entrance to our labour market and benefits system. In return, I may, in theory, have free entrance to the Greek Health Service – if they had one. It is little more than symbolic in places. Drugs are in short supply. Doctors are unpaid. Experienced doctors go private. The market is totally out of balance. It is hard to see a way out of this at the moment.

11th November, 2012

Today, I had to turn my mind to finances. Since we retired, it has been hard to know where to invest money. The stock market has been weak and savings account rates low. We have had a policy of always saving the full ISA allowance each year for both of us. We also run an on-line investment fund which we can drop money in to at any time. It is a good discipline and means we never worry about money. My mother lived on her investments alone for much of her life and could talk knowledgeably about companies and their share earnings. She kept tranches of Blue Chip shares for long periods. My approach is small beer in comparison and I don’t take any risks that I can avoid and just try to get ahead of inflation. It is becoming harder. The bonus that comes with popular investment accounts usually lasts for a year and so I am regularly looking to reinvest at this time of year. I didn’t come to many conclusions before the football started.

Having watched Man. U. make Villa look distinctly ordinary yesterday, I watched Man. City just beat a remarkably poor Spurs who are definitely still missing Harry. Chelsea v Liverpool weren’t so much better although it was good to see Liverpool with a bit of fight back.

12th November, 2012

Went to bed at 10.00 pm last night and the radio came on this morning at 4.00 am. By 5.00 am, we were in the car with Phyllis & Colin and two, huge cases en route to Gatwick Airport. The road was busy but we arrived at about 5.40 am and were going round Tesco by 6.30 am.

Off to the Health Club at 1.00 pm and we managed a half kilometre swim which really made us feel more lively. I got back to find a Facebook request from a lad I haven’t seen since 1972 at college. It turns out, he has been living and teaching quite near me in Kirklees for a long time. It will be interesting to hear his story:

By coincidence, we will rehearse the early morning process again tomorrow but drive to the tunnel and across to France.

13th November, 2012

Up again at 4.00 and on the road at 5.15 am. The drive down to the Tunnel wasn’t quite as straight forward as usual because of some early morning fog patches which slowed traffic down but we were still at the tunnel for around 6.30 am. It’s all so much easier than in the early days. I book on the internet and enter my car registration and get an email confirmation. As I drive up to the unmanned check-in booth, a camera reads my number plate and by the time I get to the machine’s screen, it reads, Welcome, Mr Sanders. I press a button and it prints my paperwork out and off I go. I must admit, it doesn’t speak to me which I miss because I’ve spent the Summer shouting back at the speaking toll booths, Arrivederci.

This was just a shopping trip today. We didn’t buy wine for ourselves because we didn’t need any but we drove over to the Calais Wine Superstore first to buy a little bit for Phyllis. We then went on to Cité Europe (which was almost deserted as you can see below) and walked round the large Carrefour. The quality of fish, meat, cheese, butter and vegetables is wonderful and €250.00 later, it was time for lunch. A pleasant little bistro provided us with a two course lunch of soup – onion for Pauline and crab for me – followed by Beef Bourguignon and french fries for Pauline and Roast Lamb with a garlic cream sauce and Duchesse Potatoes for me. Delicious! Unfortunately, because I had to drive home, I could only drink sparkling water but that was ok.

We lingered so long over lunch that we only just made our departure time of 3.40 pm but, with the hour difference, we were back in UK by 3.15 pm and home in Surrey by 4.30 pm. Cheese and biscuits and a bottle of red wine for Supper and an early night.

14th November, 2012

Today is the most beautiful, mild, sunny day you can imagine for mid-November. It is one of those days when one is glad to be alive – to be retired, free and alive is a real bonus.

I even enjoyed the goals scored against England in the evening. Ibrahimovic showed that there is no substitute for talent with a wonderful hat trick topped off with a brilliant fourth goal.

12th November, 2012

Another lovely day apart from the fact that we were up at 6.00 am and in a hospital queue by 7.00 am for my INR blood test. I was feeling shattered after ten minutes in the queue but I couldn’t show it because standing immediately in front of me was an 86 year old little old lady with a tube up her nose attached to an oxygen bottle that she had wheeled with her on a trolley. She didn’t complain so neither did I.

We went off to the Peacock Shopping Centre at 10.00 am because Pauline was desperate to look for a new bag. She had browsed the internet for hours and identified two, particular bags – one from Debenhams and one from Lewis’s. The bag has to hold a Kindle, an iPad, passports, tickets, currency, keys and mobile phone plus sundry other things. It must have a long enough strap to go diagonally across the chest with central and internal zips. She doesn’t want to pay much more than £100.00. We went to the relevant shops to look at these bags:

Of course, non had them in stock. The internet has reduced these once great shops to husks.

This afternoon I took Pauline to Woking Walk-in Hospital for a small operation on a cyst on her toe which had been increasing in size over the summer. I wasn’t in on the action but they split open the cyst and squeezed some jelly-like substance out of it. I don’t know what flavour.

This evening, we have to go to a Management Committee Meeting for the Development within which our Duplex lies. It will deal with the Annual Expenditure of our Management fees which amount to nearly £2000.00. This includes the on-site biomass as well as maintenance of the grounds – trees, grass, fences, lighting, etc..

Got a note from John Ridley this afternoon suggesting that he and Nigel (Nigel!) should act as estate agents for our Greek house. I can’t see it myself but it was nice to hear from them.

I’ve just been reading Skiathan Man and he’s been watching England cricket. Where’s he getting that from on Skiathos? Surely not from Nova.

16th November, 2012

Today there were three by-elections all won by Labour including the weather-vein constituency of Corby where the star-struck Louise Mensch had run off. Bad night for the Tories but even worse for the Liberal Democrats who will be annihilated at the General Election for reneging on their election promises. At the same time ‘Police Commissioner’ elections were mocked by the electorate as irrelevant and, at a price of £100 million, a costly waste. It was pleasing to see that Prescott was rejected by the impoverished, sink area of Humberside. Little good ever comes out of there!

Skiathan Man – always an interesting read – quotes a Greek teacher: ’17 demonstrations planned in Greek cities on Saturday, bring your own Molotov’. It demonstrates how far Greek society is moving away from the civilised mainstream even if one acknowledges why. He also kindly explained how he watches the cricket. I’d forgotten that normal people have broadband. When we are in our Sifnos house, we only have a 10Gb dongle contract for internet access. I once watched a day of cricket from ‘Sky TV’ and used 6 of my 10GB allowance for the month. Nova did televise England in South Africa but it’s a long time until that comes round. I envy Skiathan Man and that at least.

We are going up to London on Thursday. It takes about 20 minutes on the train. We went down to the station this morning to purchase Day Travel Cards. For £ 13.20 our cards will allow us to travel to Waterloo and back and anywhere on the underground. If we look like making it a regular trip, we will probably invest in Senior Rail cards which, for £28.00 give us one third off all rail journeys even first class. Actually, we are planning Harrods, Fortnum & Masons, Borough Market and, possibly, the Tate Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition – Victorian Avant-Garde.

17th November, 2012

A fairly grey and overcast day. We had just had breakfast when the dentist phoned to say Pauline’s re-worked veneer had arrived and she would fit it in the next twenty minutes if we could make it. We got there and the job took more than an hour. The original price for the job was £350.00 but because of the problems the surgery had in sourcing the correct veneer, the price was reduced to £230.00.

While Pauline was in the surgery, I sat in the car reading notes of research done by David Pritchard into the Sanders Family history which he did eight or more years ago. At the time, I was deep into work and gave it a cursory although enjoyable perusal. Now the time has arrived when my genes are itching to take up the baton and I hope I can build on David’s work. His research took the family back to the 1770s. I have the time and the inclination so, amongst other projects in Surrey and Greece, I hope to report new discoveries in the next few months. What has particularly spurred me on was as the result of some early enquiries I made at the beginning of this year. I was struck by the name of my Grandmother who I didn’t meet. Dad’s Mother who was called Flook. I thought this was quite a strange name. In fact, I thought it might be German but found it was listed as an interesting and unusual surname derived from the Old Norse personal name “Floki”, which was originally a byname meaning outspoken or enterprising. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes Flooke, which was dated November 24th 1609, marriage to William Huffe, at St. Dunstan’s, Stepney, London, during the reign of James I. I also found that the Flook name was/is heavily clustered around the Bristol area.

I contacted the Bristol & Avon Family History Society. I knew Grandad Sanders was a pilot in WW1. I knew Mabel Lillian Flook came from Wickwar in Goucestershire where she married Grandad in November 1914. I asked myself how a solidly Midlands-based man could find himself marrying in Gloucestershire at the beginning of a war that he survived, against all the odds, as a pilot. I thought that, if I was sent to train and/or be stationed in the Bristol & Avon area for an activity that gave me a life expectancy of about seven weeks, I would look to pass on my genes immediately. Grandad Sanders didn’t hang around and Dad was born in 1915. When I got back from Greece, I received this quite explosive letter:

Chipping Sodbury
Bristol
South Gloucestershire BS37 6LQ

September 2012

November 4th, 2012

A slothful day of laziness and indulgence. Aren’t they all? This one was worse. Breakfast, newspapers, football, lunch with wine, football, dinner with wine.

Tomorrow will be better!

November 5th, 2012

Up early. Went down to the garage to prepare the car for its trip to Yorkshire tomorrow and its exchange for the new car. Check oil, windscreen bottle and tyre pressures. Empty the car of everything that doesn’t belong to it. The most important thing was cleaning the sat. nav. of saved destinations. It is just getting ready for its 24 month service. (£250.00) I won’t need to do that. It probably would be expecting a new set of tyres (£1000.00+) so I won’t need to do that. The Road Tax is due in three weeks. ( £250.00) I won’t need to pay that. All in all, I’ve saved money by buying a new car.

We went on to the Health Club and had a wonderful, first session. Swimming, Jacuzzi, Steamroom. We had it almost entirely to ourselves. We do know that they must be struggling for clients. As soon as we showed any interest, they wouldn’t leave us alone, phoning with new offers. Even in the affluent commuter belt of Surrey, people are having to make savings. One of the first things that goes is the Health Club membership.

November 6th, 2012

Up at 4.30 am and out by 5.30 am on the M25 before full rush hour. It is incredible how many people are on the road at this time in the morning. Sat. Nav. told me that it was a journey of 202 miles. and, leaving at 5.30 am, I should get to Huddersfield Honda Dealership by 9.20 am. In spite of a coffee stop in Leicester Forrest, we managed to shave 30 mins. off that time. It was lovely to see Chris, our salesman of 25 years relationship. He confirmed that it was the 20th new car that he was handing over to us. He also told us that we would receive a cheque for £500.00 from Honda for being such long-standing customers. We were with Chris for an hour while he tried to explain all the computer aids of a car that is so new, he hasn’t been able to master them himself. I told him I would spend some days on the car and then send him some notes of guidance.

We drove away and on to Netherton – a village on the edge of Huddersfield – where there is a farm shop that we have used for years. We bought half a dozen pheasants for £4.00 each plus lots of quality meat which will tide us over until we go to France.

We drove on to Repton to visit Mum’s grave. It depicted a quintessential English Autumn day. A Keatsian Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. The light soft, the trees colourful, the ground carpeted with the bronze fire of fallen beech leaves. To complement the scene, light rain had begun to fall. I found myself weeping in empathy as I concentrated on the thought of my dead Mother.

If I analyse it, I am weeping for the idea of a lost Mother and, probably, for myself rather than for her but, in memory, she lives.

Life has to go on and so did we. The new car was a delight to drive even though I had to fight to access the new, DAB radio. It had 400 stations but it took me ages to find Radio 4. I did it but, at 120 mph, put the rest of M1 users at great danger. Pauline shouted at me. I will need the rest of the week to get to know all the innovations in this model. You need to be retired for this car. You need the free time.

We were home by 3.00 pm and, after driving 550 miles, I sank into a large, leather sofa with a huge cup of tea. I woke in time to watch a mediocre Man. City. scrape a poor draw against Ajax.

I love elections. Whether I can stay up to watch in the US Presidential contest tonight, I don’t know.

November 7th, 2012

I didn’t make it through the night but the radio woke me this morning at 6.00 am with the pleasing news that Obama had been re-elected. Sanity, at least in part, has returned to the US.

I rarely read instruction books for new gadgets. One of the tests of quality is the level of intuitiveness they are endowed with. Today, I spent one hour working through the Audio system in my new car. It shouldn’t be difficult. It is a combined unit of satellite navigation (no longer DVD-based but constantly ‘live’), a DVD player, a radio with DAB/FM/LW, a CD player with a hard drive storage. It is integrated with a trip computer which reports mileage (switchable for kilometres) fuel consumption/fuel remaining/road temperature. The whole thing is controlled by touch screen, controls on the steering wheel or voice commands. I’m pleased to report that after an hour of play, I can get Radio 4.

The other innovations I have had to get to grips with urgently are the ‘keyless entry’ system. You don’t need to use your key to open the doors. As long as it is in one’s pocket, the car doors will open and the engine will start at the push of a button. Similarly, when leaving the car, one merely closes the door and everything locks automatically. At the same time, the key fob in one’s pocket tells the car from a couple of metres before one enters it to set the driver’s seat to the previously chosen position. It holds two separate settings programmed to two separate fobs. Dream on!

November 8th, 2012

Up at 6.00 and at the Walk-in Hospital for my blood tests by 7.00 am. Unfortunately, there was a huge queue. I had an appointment elsewhere for a ‘flu jab at 7.40 am but I didn’t make it in time. By the time I left the Walk-in Centre, it was standing room only. It was so busy, a lady from the office came out to take my blood. “Don’t worry, I’ve been trained.”, she said and that really worried me. She did a good job and by about 8.00 am, I was having my flu’ jab.

Home for breakfast – Shreddies & coffee – with the digital newspaper and then a couple of hours writing before setting off to the Health Club.

Wonderful couple of hours at the Health Club this afternoon. We swam just half a kilometre but I was tired when I’d finished. We haven’t swum for nearly three months and I’ve got to get back in to the routine.

November 9th, 2012

A bright but slightly chilly morning. The temperature was forecast to reach 10C/50F outside but it felt quite chilly as we left for the Health Club. We managed an extra six lengths today. My body says, ‘Thank goodness I don’t go at the weekend.’

In spite of the temperatures outside being half of those currently in Greece, we haven’t felt the need to put the heating on at all. The insulation of this new apartment is phenomenal.

Today I learnt that my new car has warning sounds if I set speed boundaries. Experimenting, I set 30 mph and 80 mph as the boundaries it would warn me of breaking. I’d only gone a couple of miles before I took this parameter off because it shouted at me every time I went over 30 mph. I also found that, as soon as I play a CD in the unit, it rips it into MP3 format and saves it to the hard disk just as one might do on a computer. The CD then becomes redundant as far as the car is concerned so it can be played elsewhere instead. As long as the car is in ‘park’, it will play a DVD where the Sat. Nav. screen is and, although the cars transmission is automatic, the steering wheel includes gear change paddles that will over ride the automatic gear selection.

November 10th, 2012

We are off to France next week so I am desperately trying to get up to speed with the new car. Sorry to bore you. Today, I’ve been learning some of the switches. The tailgate rises and falls electronically. It can be switched internally from the control panel or externally from the key fob which will also open and close the electric windows. I have a (VSA) vehicles stability assist button which is on be default and prevents over and under steering. Actually, the power steering is much lighter on this model. I have a deflation warning indicator that I have to set when the tyres are inflated correctly and sounds if one falls below standard. I have a Hill Descent Control button which I have to set for the obvious. I have ABS which is standard in most cars now but mine is topped up with an Emergency Stop Signal which is really useful particularly as I do a lot of motorway driving on the Continent. ESS switches on the hazard flashers automatically if you brake hard at 60 or above. I also have (CMBS) collision mitigation braking system which is a radar sensor which detects if the vehicle in front cuts its speed and automatically cuts mine to match. This is particularly helpful with cruise control which I use all the time on the motorway. There will be a test next week to see how much you remember. I certainly won’t pass it.

Bacon sandwiches for lunch today as we watch the Rugby. Life could be worse.

28th October, 2012

Another fine day meandering down retirement lane. Sunday papers with fresh coffee. Smoked salmon sandwiches for lunch. A wonderful afternoon of football on TV. Liverpool drew with Everton in an excellent game and then United beat 9-man Chelsea in a strange but captivating victory.

Dinner was chicken, red onion and sweetcorn with wonderful, Italian pasta and a bottle of Tuscan Sangiovese followed by Pauline’s dark chocolate and amaretti Torte with autumn raspberries. Wonderful!

Pauline has been cooking all weekend. Two Christmas Puddings, a Christmas Cake, Amaretto-Chocolate Tortes in readiness for December. A dozen salmon and cod fishcakes for meals in the future. Our rule is that we never eat a pre-prepared meal unless we are dining out. Everything is fresh and made with the best ingredients.

29th October, 2012

I’m on the last leg with my latest website construction. I am fighting with a couple of difficult pages which just don’t work yet. A pleasant day. We went out for a walk. The trees are losing their leaves but still glorious.

30th October, 2012

We decided to take advantage of the special offers still being made by Eurotunnel and book another French trip before Christmas. An offer of £22.00 return just cannot be turned down. We will do our monthly shop there on November 13th and December 12th.

My new website is at the proof reading and testing stage. I aim to have it up and working in the next couple of days.

31st October, 2012

We have been discussing joining a Health Club since we got back and there is a good one near where we live. The Nuffield Health Club in West Byfleet is huge and has wonderful facilities. It has lots of machinery, a pool, jacuzzi, and steam room for me. It also hosts lots of exercise groups like Pilates and Zumba for Pauline. At £100.00 per month, it works out cost effective as long as we go four or five times each week – which we will.

1st November, 2012

Kalo μηνα  Happy November

I launched the new website today and sent a link to the Notary. Ironically, we received a phone call from our amanuensis on the island. They had been chopping wood for their burner in anticipation of a cold winter. They were informing us of our electricity bill which will amount to about £150.00 for the six months. Not bad.

2nd November, 2012

We received a call for help from Phyllis & Colin to go round and assist them ……………. build a fluorescent green mountain bike that had been ordered over the internet. It is a birthday present for one of the boys but it beat us. Half an hour was all we needed to know it was a job for the professionals. A quick call to the local Halfords and a quote of £40.00 was enough to drop the project.

We bought a very expensive pheasant in a local butcher’s shop the other day. We had it for dinner this evening and it was absolutely wonderful. We must buy plenty more from the farm shop in Huddersfield when we go.

3rd November, 2012

Torrential rain all night gave way to a lovely, bright morning. TV News reported snow in the South West. It is still quite mild here. We haven’t had to turn the heating on yet. Long may it continue. Even though we went out early this morning to do the weekly shop, by the time we had got home and had coffee, it was time to watch United destroy Arsenal.

Christmas arrangements have been made: we have agreed to meet for a meal with the family on Christmas Eve at our local country pub – The Inn at Maybury. On Christmas Day, Pauline & I will cook for eleven people with traditional turkey as the main course. Starter will be finger food – smoked salmon, etc. Pauline has made the Christmas Puddings and the cake already giving them time to mature  – like me.

The website went up this week and already has been visited 37 times. We have already had two couples looking round the house. A Sifnos couple went round last week and thought the price reasonable. I think it is although that was the hardest thing to get right. Certainly, we could have put it on at a higher price but it will only sell if it is considered a reasonable price and I think this is. The irony is that, two years ago, we could have added an extra €200,000.00. It is not a problem. My abiding principle in building the house was that it should not compromise our life and finances in UK. What will be, will be! I’m already planning our return to Sifnos next Spring.

21st October, 2012

It is a real sign of old age when a brief jaunt away takes days to recover from. I plead guilty. I did drive 650 miles over those three days but I think it was the socialising that really tired me out. Pauline and I live so much in our own little bubble that social intercourse spread over three days really took it out of us. I have slumped with the Sunday Times today, watched a couple of games of football and written a few emails.

Tomorrow is the 55th birthdays of my brother, Mike, and Sister, Liz. I still picture them as 10 or 11 not 55! Ruth met Liz recently and said she was limping with arthritis and that Mike had it so badly he had been unable to get out of bed one day. I am not aware of it in our family at all. Ruth told me that she and David are going with Jane to Buckingham Palace in a week or two when she receives her CBE. Liz will be the next one. She has already had lunch with the queen and her job is likely to lead to some automatic honour in the end.

22nd October, 2012

Happy 55th Birthday to Mike & Liz. How grown up are they?

Sent an email to Liz and got a nice and immediate reply. Sent a card to Mike who refuses to embrace technology. I don’t know why. He’s extremely intelligent. I might hear from him in a year or two.

23rd October, 2012

We are developing a very busy schedule over the next few weeks so I’m desperately trying to get this new website completed and published. It’s not one I have to maintain other than fielding correspondence so, when it’s finished, it won’t take up a lot of time.

When I got back from Greece, I was shocked to find a letter from a member of the Bristol & Avon Family History Society. The correspondent had long been investigating their own family and finally found that it became entangled with ours. The letter was asking for help. I will deal with that next and that may also result in a website redesign ultimately.

Before Christmas, we have a trip to London for shopping. We want to visit Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Borough Market. We would like to do a second one to visit the Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition at the Tate. We have at least one shopping trip to France and a trip to Yorkshire to collect the new car. I will visit Repton on the way back.

In addition to these, we have a string of Doctors’, Dentists’, Hygenists’, Hospital, Diabetic Clinic appointments. I have so many friends/correspondents to get back up to date with that my emails are likely to blend in to the Christmas Card List. Still, it’s better than being bored, isn’t it?

Watched Man. Utd. splutter through to victory against Braga in the Champion’s League. They will have to do better than this.

24th October, 2012

The mornings have been grey for a few days now. It isn’t cold – by British standards – at 16C/61F but it is a bit depressing. It’s only 18C/64F in Athens and Skiathos so the difference isn’t as great as one imagines. My morning starts at 7.30 am with a glass of fresh orange, a huge cup (bucket) of breakfast tea and then a bowl of cereals – usually Shreddies which I love. After downloading The Times on to my iPad, I make a cup of fresh coffee. My coffee maker produces a wonderful cup of Capuccino for about 22p. It would cost about £2.20 at Costa Coffee. The newspaper this morning, like the news bulletins for days, is dominated by the BBC’s relationship with Jimmy Saville. To hear executives say they didn’t know is ridiculous. I heard him say back in the 70s that he liked to take young girls back to his caravan.

This afternoon, Pauline is going for a fitting for a new veneer on her front tooth. She lost the last one in Greece. The new one will cost £320.00.

25th October, 2012

Had to be out early this morning. Blood tests – a standard INR plus my annual diabetic check. The nurse really did take an armful. After that, we had to drive a couple of miles to take Pauline to visit the Doctor. She is prone to developing ganglions or little fatty cysts. Five years ago, we had a real scare when she developed one in her forearm that was initially thought to be more serious but, fortunately, turned out to be completely benign. We had to go down to Birmingham to have it removed by a Specialist. Now she has one on her shoulder which is starting to impact on her mobility and which will also have to come out. This time, it will be done locally. Later, Pauline had a second ‘fitting’ for a veneer at the dentist. Neither of us has seen a doctor or dentist for over six months so to return to this kind of regime makes us feel our age.

26th October, 2012

For years now Pauline and I have loved cooking with and eating game – pheasant, partridge, pigeon, quail, rabbit & hare. In Yorkshire it was cheap and readily available. Pheasants, in the shooting season, cost £3.00 each from our farm shop. A good sized rabbit was about the same price. We have just found a butcher down here selling fresh pheasants for £6.75. Fortunately, we are off back to Yorkshire to pick the new car up and we will go loaded with cool boxes which we will stuff full of cheap game from Hinchcliffe’s Farm Shop in Netherton.

After buying up all the supermarkets this morning, Pauline is making the Christmas Cake and Christmas puddings this afternoon. Let’s hope they last until Christmas.

27th October, 2012

The national weather forecasts have been predicting freezing temperatures to replace the current mild days. As the week has gone on, the heavily trailed predictions just haven’t been matched by the reality. Last year, the huge fig tree in the garden next door was totally denuded over night by one frost. Every time I go past, I warn it to enjoy its last day of leaves but next day it remains in all its finery. The media have managed to find evidence of cold – snow in Scotland and a smattering around Newcastle. Big Deal! Tomorrow the non-cold weather is replaced by mild again. Get the gritters out. We put the clocks back tonight. This was a big deal when we were working. An extra hour in bed. Now retired, it means nothing. All our clocks update themselves automatically these days.

In Greece it is Ochi Day tomorrow. You might think it’s that day every day for many Greeks. At least it is looking much more hopeful that Samaras has managed to bring off the impossible and to get a deal with Europe which will include a two year extension. Who knows. It just might work.

14th October, 2012

A quiet day of Sunday papers and some time developing a new web for a special order. I use Macromedia’s Dreamweaver and Fireworks usually but I am trialling a new piece of software and finding it very exciting. It’s nice to find you can’t do something and have to fight to understand it.

15th October, 2012

A nice, sunny morning. Pauline has gone off to her Pilates class with her sister. I’m getting on with my web design. In my email this morning I received one of these regular offers for a day return crossing of car and passengers through the channel tunnel for a total of £22.00. We booked our monthly shopping trip immediately.

I am beginning to get really concerned by time. I’m sure it’s speeding up. Today, it was announced, is the 25th anniversary of the Great Storm which Michael Fish denied and we woke to find trees blown down everywhere across the south of England. Twenty five years!

16th October, 2012

Fascinating focus in the media today. We’ve been talking about the lack of reciprocity in Europe vis a vis Health Treatment. Britain is such an easy touch. Wherever one goes in Europe, one is asked to pay up front and possibly claim some of it back through the EHIC card.

Up until now, British doctors and hospitals seem to treat anyone free of charge. Well soon it may be closing that open-door policy even for ex-pat British passport holders. The pressure on the NHS is so great now that rationing is being openly employed for British taxpayers. Essential things like cataracts and hip replacements are being put on hold for lack of funding. The Tory Government are looking at policing Healthcare access and confining it to those who can prove they have spent at least 180 days each year living in the UK. We know people who live abroad for all but the odd week back in UK but who expect their country of origin to provide the healthcare when things get serious or expensive. The government must cut that out.

17th October, 2012

Still working on this new website today. I’m really enjoying it but it is intricate and labour-intensive. We are going away for a few days tomorrow so it won’t be finished until next week.

We’ve been in Woking, officially, for a whole year now and I haven’t actually seen a doctor at our new practice. I see nurses for blood tests, etc. but nobody of real substance. Today, I am going for my Annual Review with an actual doctor – a cardiac specialist. That will be interesting. I’m bound to have my blood pressure checked. It won’t be good. I’m watching England being run ragged by Poland. What are they doing?

18th October, 2012

This morning we drive to Lancashire. It is the second anniversary of Mum Barnes’ death. She would have been 98 now.

We are going to the Crematorium to pay our respects and to remember her. En route, we will stop in Repton to visit my Mum’s grave.

Neither Pauline nor I believe in an after life but we still feel the visit evokes the memory more than just a thought. While in Oldham, I will visit my old friend, Brian – ex Drugs Squad, ex Murder Squad. He is the most wonderful man and about the only person (other than my wife) that I would trust with my life.

Later………..

We got off at 5.30 am and had an excellent journey in fine weather. We felt that we were a bit under pressure to get everything done and decided to visit Repton on the return journey. On reaching Oldham, we went straight to look at the new school buildings going up all over the town at a cost of tens of millions of pounds. This is how our reborn school will look as Waterhead Academy with its 2000 pupils. The photos below are poor because I took them on my iPad but you will get the idea.

Appropriately, we went on to see Kath (aka The Maltese Falcon because she was born there) who was my cleaner in school and who went on to clean for Pauline’s Mum and adopt her as a surrogate Mother. When we arrived, on the second anniversary of Mum’s death, Kath and her husband had ‘lit a candle’ in memory of her. It was very touching. We went on to see all the other friends and relatives we had arranged and then drove back to Huddersfield – actually, Brighouse where we were staying at the Holiday Inn. It’s not a brilliant hotel but, for years, we visited it five or six times a week to use the Health Centre – pool, jacuzzi, gym, steam room, etc. It was familiar and comfortable.

At 6.30 pm we drove down to the most unlikely and unprepossessing part of Huddersfield fringed by the railway viaduct to visit Bradleys Restaurant. Until weeks ago we knew nothing about it and we have been kicking ourselves having long decried the lack of good restaurants in Huddersfield. Apparently, it has featured in the Good Food Guide for seven, consecutive years. Our friends and ex-school colleagues met us at the door and we went in to a lovely interior. I asked how long the restaurant had been there and was flabbergasted to be told that it was nineteen years. We have to get out more. The meal was absolutely wonderful. I had pigeon breast and black pudding to start and it was a revelation. Designer Belly Pork on a bed of garlic mash was fantastic and tarte aux pommes with elderberry ice cream really finished it beautifully. The amazing thing was, after paying European and Surrey prices over the past twelve months, the bill for four people each having three courses and sharing two bottles of wine came to just £93.00. Quite amazing for that quality.

It was a lovely end to the day with lovely, wine, food and friends. Tomorrow is Yorkshire day.

19th October, 2012

A beautiful, sunny day. We were up fairly early and had quite pleasant, buffet breakfast although we were still full from the night before. We set off for Bolton to visit my lovely sister, Ruth, and her friendly husband, Kevan. They seem very happy and relaxed in their new apartment. They seem to have coped with retirement and down sizing rather better than Pauline & I on first impressions. Driving back, we returned to our old house to visit Jean & Perry, our former neighbours. They are the most delightful friends and had lots of tales to tell us. Perry is a lecturer at Bradford College. He would like to retire but is in his mid-50s and feels trapped until his mid-60s. Jean is already in her 60s. We lived in a former quarry and often speculated about the security of its 35 ft. wall.

When we returned we were told that, shortly after we left, a huge block of sandstone cracked and fell on to the back lawn. Nobody could crack or split it and no one could move it so they’ve decided to make a feature of it with shrubs and trees around it and insurance companies will be told that it has always been there.

We left Jean & Perry and this is where we made our great mistake. Over the years, we have built up a strong friendship with Chris, our Honda salesman. Yes, he is a salesman but we have bought cars from him over more than thirty years. In fact, we have bought twenty five new cars during our thirty two year marriage and nineteen of them have been from Chris. We have had a new Mini, a Nissan (Datsun) Cherry, a Nissan Stanza and then in 1984, we bought our first Honda. It was an Accord and cost £7,400.00. We kept that for four years and then moved on to Preludes. We bought a new one virtually each year until we started driving to Greece in 2000 when we moved on to 4×4 CRVs. We just popped in to say ‘Hello’ although we did know that they were launching the latest model of our car today. When we arrived, the launch party hadn’t quite started. By the time we left, half an hour later, they had just sold their first car of the new model and we had just bought it. Our first new car back, in 1979, cost just over £1000.00 and we struggled to afford it. This new car costs a little bit more at £32,000.00 but they begged us to accept 0% finance. How could we refuse.

We have to return in a month to pick it up. Should be an enjoyable trip.

20th October, 2012

After a light breakfast from the buffet – I had yoghurt & berry compote – we made an early start. First we had to nip off to buy a batch of Hollands Pies for Colin who gets homesick without them. By some, strange coincidence, they had just been reduced from £1.53 to 50p each so we bought the shop out. Let’s hope his freezer’s big enough.

The weather was sunny and the motorway quiet. We have decided to visit Mum’s grave when we return next month. We were home for 1.15 pm. It was only then that I realised how tiring the three days had been. I fell asleep through the Chelsea v Spurs match.

7th October, 2012

The trees at our front door are showing signs of Autumn and an army of squirrels believe it to be true as they scurry underneath to hide nuts in a store for the winter.

Drove over to Epsom this morning – not to the races but to our nearest branch of Staples. I needed a new colour printer. I have a Brother Mono Laser printer which has been a wonderful workhorse for years and backed it up with an inkjet colour because I used it so rarely. I think the inkjet printer cost less than £50.00 which is really a throwaway price. The last colour laser bought for school, I remember distinctly, cost £3,570.00. I remember because I had a tussle with the Local Authority about which one to order to use for publicity work. I chose a Kyocera and it turned out to be a wonderful quality but one would never pay that for it now. It was as big as a dishwasher. Even the toner cost £400.00. It’s rather like OCR software which, in the 1990s was the holy grail and cost hundreds of pounds, now comes free with a scanner.

Anyway, I chose a Brother HL-3040CN colour laser because it was being advertised by Staples on-line at £107.00. I thought it was ridiculously cheap and, when I got there, it turned out to be so. The store had it advertised for £237.00, which is still unbelievably cheap. When I showed the Manager my web printout, he said it must be a typing error but he had to honour the lower price. Set up and used as soon as we got home, it looks a good buy.

8th October, 2012

The skies opened this morning soon after breakfast and rain poured torrentially. It was a delight to see after months of strong sun. Spent my morning writing to people in Sifnos – emails and hard copies. I interspersed this by watching coverage of the Tory Party Conference from Birmingham and a pretty sterile and tawdry affair it is. They are a caricature of 1970s Toryism. We are still, according to them, all in this together. Later in the evening, Channel 4 ran an investigative piece illustrating the hugely divergent and continually diverging levels of reward between those at the top of companies and those at the very bottom. It really did little more than reiterate the involvement of cronyism on Remuneration Boards but it did serve as a counterpoint to a Tory Chancellor looking to cut Welfare budgets.

9th October, 2012

A delightful day. I drove Pauline and her sister to Guildford. It’s less than ten miles away and is a charming place with much of the charm of somewhere like York.

For Pauline, it was like a walk through all the clothes catalogues that arrive so regularly in the post:

• Toast
• Brora
• Hobbs
• Cotton Traders
• Kew
• French Connection
• East

The only shop I accompanied them to was Lakeland because I wanted to look at a Sousvide machine but it was disappointingly missing.

10th October, 2012

The day has opened with beautiful, warm sunshine. The squirrels are going wild. The morning was spent helping Phyllis & Colin book a break in Tenerife. We used three, separate methods – internet helped me isolate the sort of holidays available. All websites offered internet reductions. Hard copy brochures had the same holidays but at even cheaper prices. Phyllis ultimately booked the holiday by phone and got it cheaper again. What was interesting was to find the internet site and the brochure disagreed about the flight times and the final booking confirmed different flight times again.

This afternoon a friend from Sifnos phoned with exciting news for us. She also said that, although the weather had been wonderful since we left, there was a lot of illness going round. Her children had been ill and she now had it.

We are driving up to Lancashire & Yorkshire for a couple of days next week and we made some phone calls to make arrangements to meet family, old friends, ex-neighbours and ex-colleagues. Every minute of the two or so days is now fixed up. We will be exhausted by the time we leave for Surrey.

11th October, 2012

Had to be at Woking Walk-in Centre for 9.00 am for my blood test. We then drove on to our dentist’s appointments. Pauline needs an expensive veneer on her front tooth to replace the one that she lost while in Greece.

We drove home through increasingly heavy rain and prepared lunch. We roasted red peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic with oregano and later made soup from them. I then did the most ridiculous thing. I applied for my Winter Fuel Allowance. I qualify for £200.00 per year. I don’t need £200.00. Last year our total heating bill was about £100.00. Even with our underfloor heating for a month in Sifnos we wouldn’t have spent £200.00 but, because we are entitled to it, I have applied for it.

Honda have invited us to preview the new CRV model out next month. I’m trying to resist it. I’ve had a new Honda most years over the past thirty. I occasionally have a hankering for a change of maker. These are the models I would consider at the moment:

• The new CRV
• The Volvo XC90
• The Land Rover
• The Range Rover

12th October, 2012

Had to visit Honda this morning to show them stone chip we got to our windscreen on the way through France. It seems it’s not as bad as we feared and can just be filled and buffed away. Autoglass are coming round this afternoon and will do it for free. The wine merchants I visit in Calais have sent us free return tickets so we will probably use them in November. I got an email from Friends Reunited yesterday saying someone had uploaded a photograph which featured me. When I found it:

I couldn’t remember a thing about it other than it was in Masham where we used to visit Theakston’s Brewery which, in those days only had an outlet in two or three pubs. Nowadays, you can buy it in Supermarkets across the country. The trouble with the photo is that I am surrounded by youngsters who I have no memory of. I can see Chris Tolley in the background, leaning against the wall. I can see John ???? in the door of the pub but the others are distant memories. It must have been 1971/2. Now this next one, I remember well. I’m the hairy monster with his hand up surrounded by some of his closest peers. I suspect this was 1970/71. There is Judy, Christine, Bill & Nigel in the back row and Anne, Kevin, Robert & Me in the front row.

Where are those days? Well the times are certainly changing. The Autoglass man who came round to fix the chip in our windscreen turned out to be a 40 year old, bi-lingual law graduate who had fallen on hard times and was driving round the south east of England, filling or replacing windscreens. Quite amazing but he did an excellent job for me. Strange to think that my pension for doing nothing is greater than his take home pay for five and a half days work.

13th October, 2012

A lovely, mild, Autumn day of sun and showers. All the lawns were cut yesterday, stray leaves vacuumed up and the rich, green stripes look great in the sunshine. Although we are doing fairly mundane things today, after six months in Greece, a trip to Tesco is magical.

30th September, 2012

Weird waking up in England. Opened the blinds and trees in full and vivid green leaf everywhere with green striped lawns below. At least the staff have been doing their job while we were away.

Breakfast was even stranger. I couldn’t remember which cupboards the cups were in. I turned to the oven in looking for the fridge. I downloaded the Sunday Times in a quarter of the time it took on Sifnos. I couldn’t work the handsets out for the TV and Sky. I struggled with the burglar alarm and wandered into one of the bathrooms and couldn’t find the light switches.

In the afternoon, we went round to have lunch with Phyllis and Colin. Mandy and the boys dropped in to see us. We’ve arranged to take Phyllis & Colin out to Dinner on Saturday to celebrate Pauline’s birthday. Her birthday is on Friday but Phyllis is going to the theatre on Friday to enjoy a belated birthday treat with Mandy. Enjoy the show.

Tried to watch Match of the Day but Greek time kicked in and I had to go to bed.

1st October, 2012

Stop the world. I want to get off! October already. Happy new month everyone.

Rain, grey skies and the news that Europe won the Ryder Cup. Excellent. New breakfast routine kicks in today – porridge. Now we have to make doctors’ appointments, dentists’ appointments, eye tests, diabetic checkup for me and hair for Pauline. We must have the car valeted and serviced.

2nd October, 2012

As we boarded F/b Adamas Korais a week ago, we said goodbye to our dear amenuensis. Without her and the many friends she introduced us to, we could not have achieved what we have. Today we spoke to her by phone. Unfortunately, she is in mourning for her nephew who has died of cancer. We felt so sorry for her loss. Rather unexpectedly, I also received an email from the Notary hoping that we had had a good journey home which was nice. Such a contrast with those who abandoned us.

Rather nice surprise today. Had a letter from Barclays Bank – not our bank – to be told they were holding money in a savings account for us. It looks like a carry over from when we sold our house two years ago. I thought the account had been closed. It will be tomorrow. This afternoon, we finished emptying the car and racking the wines. Booked a restaurant for a meal to celebrate Pauline’s birthday on Saturday.

I don’t know if you saw Ed. Milliband’s Leader’s speech in Manchester. I was captivated by it. It was an impressive tour de force of 70 mins. without notes. I do hope that is a springboard for the next stage.

3rd October, 2012

Out early today in a crisp, dry morning of 12C/54F to have the car valeted then on to Barclays Bank to extract a wad of cash and close the old account. Had to show our passports to prove our identity.

In to town to Specsavers for eye tests. They are free for both of us – me because I am diabetic and Pauline because she is so old. No change for me. Pauline needs stronger reading lenses. She hates going to the supermarket and having to have her glasses round her neck but it comes to most. In my case, I have to take my glasses off to read. Pauline tried to drag me in to a couple of dress shops but she could see I couldn’t stand it so we dropped in to Pre a Manger for a bit of lunch. Pauline went off to her hairdressers’ appointment at the Headmasters chain and I sat in Costa Coffee reading my newspaper.

This evening I watched a disappointing performance by Man. City or an impressive performance by Borussia Dortmund. They needed a penalty from Balotelli penalty to get an undeserved 1-1 draw.

Topped the evening off marvelling at the Tories total incompetence as evidenced by their staggering mess of the rail franchise. What a way to run a railway!

4th October, 2012

A day of research, thinking and writing. I’d forgotten how tiring it was. After six months on a Greek island doing not much more challenging than painting the pergola, brain work left me exhausted. Thankfully, it was punctuated by trips out to take Pauline to buy a kettle – she has been using her Mum’s for the last couple of years for sentimental reasons but now it has to go. Pauline also needed a new watch. Gone are the days when they cost a fortune. Pauline’s preferred one was £4.99 from Argos.

5th October, 2012

Happy Birthday to Pauline. She is 61 today and still looks under 50. It must be being married to me. We celebrated by me cooking dinner. We ate Salmon & Cod (well Saumon et Cabillaud actually because we bought it in France) with a Parmigiano crust with saute potatoes, green beans and an onion marmalade. I have to say, it was surprisingly good.

6th October, 2012

To celebrate Pauline’s birthday we went out for dinner with Pauline’s sister, Phyllis, and her husband, Colin. It was Chinese at Chu Chin Chow in Byfleet.

The meal was incredibly good, particularly the duck and squid dishes. We had lovely conversation and were surprised when we left that we’d been there for over two hours.

23rd September, 2012

We’ve made a last minute decision to leave early. The conditions – rapidly and vastly reducing ferry connections including the termination of Speed Runner next week plus an Autumn of Discontent in Athens with a General Strike on Wednesday affecting transport. It seems opportune to be taking a break. Contacted Superfast and they have a Luxury Cabin for Tuesday from Patras to Ancona.

• F/b Adamas Korais leaves Sifnos this afternoon and we will be on it.
• Two nights in a 5* Hotel just outside the new port in Patras.
• 23 hours on Superfast up the Adriatic to Ancona.
• Drive 3 hours to Parma in Italy for one night.
• Drive 5 hours to Mulhouse in Alsace for one night.
• Drive 4 hours to Reims in Champagne Country for one night.
• Drive 3 hours to Calais, through the Tunnel and up to Surrey.

I will try to maintain my Blog. I’ve booked hotels with wi-fi but it doesn’t always materialise.

It seems a pity to be leaving because the weather is settling down for a hot week of swimming and socialising but WE WILL BE BACK.

24th September, 2012

Wonderful trip on a quiet F/b Adamas Korais arriving in Piraeus by 8.25 pm.

Jockeyed for position with Marios from the supermarket as we drove off. He wished us a good journey and we drove off in to the night. The traffic from Patras was immense and continuous. The traffic our way was quite light and we did it in a record two hours. The car was so relieved to leave those cramped, island roads and thanked me continually for allowing it to stretch its legs as we cruised at 120 mph along the newer stretches of motorway.

The new port is further on than the old which is why we have switched our hotel from old favourite, Patras Palace to the Poseidon Palace which offers so much more. Our room is lovely. We arrived in time to have dinner which was very nice. There is free wi-fi throughout the hotel so I downloaded my copy of The Times to my iPad over breakfast and then we drove down to the new port offices to check on sailings and the strike.

What we learned quite surprised us a left us feeling extremely lucky. We leave on Superfast at 5.00 pm on Tuesday. The strike begins at midnight. Our boat goes but the Wednesday boat doesn’t and, possibly the Thursday boat won’t either. That surprised us because, usually, these strikes haven’t affected Greece-Italy ferries. We raised the possibility of the ferry tying up at Igoumenitsa but they had clearly been asked to consider that possibility already because they laughed and said that the boat would reach Igoumenitsa in time to leave by 11.30 pm and, therefore, there wouldn’t be a problem.

The temperature is climbing to 30C/88F and we have driven back to the hotel to swim in the wonderful pool. You can walk down their jetty and swim in the sea but the pool is delightful and incorporates a huge and powerful jacuzzi. We have had it completely to ourselves for a couple of hours and feel very relaxed.

25th September, 2012

After a wonderful meal in the Hotel restaurant last night, we only needed a light breakfast. Unfortunately, we couldn’t resist the bacon & eggs on offer so we are feeling podged again. It is a lovely, still and warm morning – forecast to reach 29C/85F – which we are spending walking in the gardens and catching up on correspondence. A lot of my readers have wished us a safe journey and a good winter. It could be nothing other without the Poison Dwarf.

We board at 3.30 pm and sail at 5.00 pm. After dinner, we will try to stay awake to see the stop at Igoumenitsa at 11.30 pm and then sleep. The boat docks in Ancona at 4.00 pm tomorrow. The poor people booked for Wednesday’s 5.00 pm sailing are having to wait an extra seven hours in order to beat the strike.

26th September, 2012

We dined on grilled salmon last night with a bottle of chilled, red wine followed by half an hour out on deck getting plenty of sea spray in our faces. We went to bed at 10.30 pm and were out like a light so soon that we completely missed the stop at Igoumenitsa around 11.30 pm. This morning dawned bright and sunny and our luxury cabin at the front (bow?) on top deck with huge, panoramic windows gave us wonderful views of …..the sea and sky.

Breakfast in the A La Carte Restaurant comes in the price of our ticket so we couldn’t turn it down – could we. Fresh orange juice, a pot of wonderful coffee, toast, bacon & eggs followed by croissants.

We staggered to the Purser’s Desk to buy a wireless internet card and download The Times to my iPad. We both find ships frustrating slow. We would never consider a cruise for that reason. Superfast XI docked at 4.30 pm and we were off shortly after 5.00 pm. Under our own steam, driving was a nice feeling. More importantly, the weather was warm and dry in total contradiction of the BBC’s weather forecast which suggested that the whole of our journey would be wet. The drive from Ancona port to the centre of Parma was really enjoyable and we arrived at our hotel by 8.30 pm. The Hotel Villa Ducale was ok but only ok.

It demonstrates the difficulty in upgrading and maintaining an older building. The room was rather dark and a bit dingy although the bathroom was lovely. The dining room was like a huge, souless hall and the Maitre d’ like Basil Fawlty although the food was rather good.

It wasn’t cheap. It cost us €180.00 for the night with dinner. We won’t go back there.

27th September, 2012

This morning we set off on the hardest leg of our journey – a five hour drive from Parma in Italy to Mulhouse in Alsace, France. Gone are the days when we got off the boat and drove non-stop to Zeebrugge to catch the ferry back to Hull. Retirement brings so many benefits, not least, low season prices and an indulgent drive through Europe. Once again, the weather was beautiful even in Switzerland. We were expecting thunderstorms there but the sun shone and the clouds remained high and white. Admittedly, the temperature fell to figures we hardly recognised – 11C/52F – and the peaks had plenty of new snow on them but huge waterfalls were spectacularly crashing down the mountainsides everywhere.

Our route today has been: Parma – Milan – Lake Como – Lake Lugano – Lake Maggiore – Belinzona – San Gotthard Tunnel – Altdorf – Seelisberg Tunnel – Lucerne – Basel – Mulhouse.

With a break for coffee, it has taken five and a half hours. We are staying at a hotel that we’ve used a couple of times before and enjoyed – The Holiday Inn. It is reasonably priced and very comfortable, has a fantastic restaurant and a wonderful, basement pool with sauna and gym.

Tomorrow we drive to and stay in the champagne city of Reims. We are looking forward to that.

28th September, 2012

Wonderful drive this morning from Alsace to Reims in the heart of the Champagne Region. Late summer sun bathed the almost empty motorways – abandoned by the everyday French because of the level of tolls. French motorways are beautifully planted with the most glorious trees which increasingly display orange and golden burnished leaves as the depth of Autumn intensifies as we get closer to Calais and the coast.

We were in no hurry although we mooched around in our hotel room until 10.00 am, drinking coffee and listening the Today programme on Radio 4 and doing our correspondence. I downloaded the paper and read a chunk of it. No breakfast this morning. We are still full from last night. After a couple of hours driving:

Mulhouse – Colmar – Strasbourg – Metz – Verdun – Epernay – Reims (There are shorter routes but this is the quickest.)

We stopped for petrol and to have coffee and a sandwich. We wouldn’t dream of doing this in UK but French Service Stations are clean, attractively laid out and sell the most amazing fresh coffee and top quality food. I just had a baguette with ham and salad. It was gorgeous with every element from ham to oak-leaved lettuce to cornichons to mayonaise being chosen and combined for its quality. The coffee was as good as I could make myself. For that – €11.00 / £8.80. Not too bad for heaven.

We arrived at our hotel in the centre of Reims – about 100 mtrs. from the famous, ornately neo-Gothic cathederal – The Mercure Reims Centre Cathedrale.

With great good fortune, we found the hotel has a secure, underground carpark and the hotel itself has just completed a full refit. It is delightfully comfortable from the brand new carpets to the huge new bed. We have every channel imaginable on the new, flat-screen television and a fantastically ‘cool’ bathroom. Wi-fi is strong and free in our room and everywhere else. I’ll let you know later about the restaurant.

29th September, 2012

Well, today we drive to Calais, spend two or three hours stocking up on wine and doing a month’s grocery shopping in Auchan and Carrefour. We will find somewhere nice for lunch. We have booked a spot to drive through the tunnel at 5.00 pm (France)/4.00 pm (UK) but it may be that we choose to go through a couple of hours earlier. It will take us another hour to drive to our home in Surrey and mark the end of one 6 month period and the start of another.

After three delightful hours on an almost deserted motorway in beautiful sunshine, we arrived in Calais at our favourite wine outlet – The Calais Wine Superstore – and then drive on to Auchan in Coquelles where we do our grocery shop. We have a bite to eat and then drive on to the Tunnel, arriving about 2.00 pm (French time), hoping to get on an early train. Unfortunately, one of the ferry companies is on strike so the trains are full but we still get into Kent for 4.30 pm and to Surrey before 6.00 pm.

The grounds around our apartment looked wonderful. The lawns closely mown and green, the trees in luscious leaf with squirrels darting everywhere. The temperature was a bit keen for a man in short sleeves – 14C/57F – but it was nice to feel a different climate. We had bought bread, butter, cheese  & ham in France and that made a quick tea along with a bottle of something. I just managed to stay awake long enough for the evening news and Match of the Day before a shower and falling into bed.