Sanders Blog

Sunday, 14th July, 2024

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.

Vladimir Lenin

The last 7 days feel a bit like that. A new Labour Government, Trump gets shot, England (may) win a football championship. Before you know it, the sun will come out in the North of England and the rain in Wales will turn to drizzle. The sun is certainly out here again this morning. Clear, blue sky and warm sunshine. It’s going to be a nice day. Come on down, Dear Reader.

Exactly a decade ago yesterday, I was sitting in a hotel room of a Patras hotel on the Greek Peloponnese watching Germany win the World Cup. Time for a change, to coin a phrase. The old men’s Whatsapp group is full of over confident optimism. I must admit that I am naturally pessimistic and I’m unlikely to change now.

You know, Dear Reader, that I am normally far too sophisticated to drink beer. Well, I am going to make an exception tonight. In fact, last time I was in France, I bought some just in case. Can you believe it? What on earth am I going to do with 40 bottles of French beer?

Monday, 15th July, 2024

The world is grey this morning. Warm but overcast. The men in my Whatsapp group are Depressed/Gloomy/Philosophical this morning. They sent me this summary of their feelings.

It really wasn’t as important to me as a Labour victory or a Trump defeat. That seems like a 1-1 draw in the hard light of day. The War of Trump’s Ear may have swung the balance but we’ll see.

I must admit that I’m not big on Environmentalism per se. I am not going to live more than 30 more years. I have no children. Other people can do what they see fit but I still think human ingenuity will solve the problems without having to turn back our technologically developmental clocks. We shouldn’t have to limit our travel. We shouldn’t have to cut back on heating or cooling, on washing or drying. We need to find solutions that enable us to do all those things.

However, I’m entirely behind the march of progress and harnessing the natural elements, sun, wind and sea to produce power. Ultimately, after we have gone, future generations will have unlimited and largely ‘free’ power released by atomic fission but, until then, we really should use these alternatives.

We have gone over the possibilities and economic viability of installing solar panels on our roof but, although we get enough sun to justify it, the cost of installation makes the economics barely worth it. If a Labour government want to persuade us with big grants, that would be enough to tip the balance. They are also installing fields full of solar panels across the country which will be enough to generate 65% of our solar energy for the whole country. The Tories had refused to sign off on these plans for fear of upsetting Tory, Shire voters but still blamed reliance on Russian oil for the rise in costs. This is a workaround the works all round.

All will be announced in the King’s Speech to Parliament on Thursday where Labour’s Legislative Programme will be announced. Looking forward to it. What I’m not going to do is trust the weather forecast. We were told it would rain all day. We had a few minutes of light rain and then dry for the rest of the day. How can we plan? Who pays these people?

Actually, the day has turned out to be very hot and humid day and has ended in darkness and a cloudburst. I won’t need to water for a week after the skies have opened and dumped gallons on every square inch.

Tuesday, 16th July, 2024

For most of my adult life, I have seen T.S. Elliot as speaking for me. He wrote so many lines of poetry which fit my life perfectly.

Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.

T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets 3: The Dry Salvages

I’m not sure Elliot would be writing these lines this year. Yesterday, St Swithin’s Day, featured rain and some more rain. If you believe in ancient, ecclesiastical proverbs, which I don’t, you’re going to need an umbrella until August 24th especially if you live in the North and Wales. Thank goodness I’m flying to Athens where the daytime temperature will not fall below 38C/101F for the next two weeks at least.

Water means a whole new thing in this situation. In the early days, our island ran dry in the summer and water ships arrived to replenish tanks. Now they have a de-salination plant and we had our own well.

I went to Burton on Trent Grammar School which was founded in the 16th Century. I followed my Father who was there in the 1920s – 30s and my cousin, David Pritchard, who had just left as I arrived in 1962. A number of the teachers mentioned there still remembered Dad – Frank Tusky Read and Major Dai Taffy Davies. They both taught me as well although I definitely didn’t join the cadets.

It is incredible to understand, however, that this photograph was taken only 13 years after World War 2 ended and that explains the military focus. My total sex education at school was a 15 mins film of Major Jo Grimond (later Liberal Leader) with a lecture to army cadets about avoiding venereal disease. I could have done with more effective advice but then it all feels so, so far away. Anyway, David is 80 today and we wish him a very happy birthday.

Wednesday, 17th July, 2024

Going to be a good day. A lovely sunny and warm day. A day for the King’s Speech setting out the new Labour Government’s legislative agenda for the coming months.

I’m looking forward to poor people not subsidising well-off people by putting VAT on their school fees. I’m looking forward to the returning of Workers’ Rights, to the instigation of GB Energy,  a new state-owned energy company with increased renewable generation, to Rail Nationalisation, to greater Devolution of powers to regional Mayors, to the start of the dismantling of the House of Lords and much more. Whoever wins US election, Britain will change for the better.

Time is a strange thing, isn’t it, Dear Reader. While I was looking for a school photo of my ancient relative, David Pritchard, I stumbled across this photo from 1930. The central figure at the back leapt out at me. It is my Dad – Eric Richard Sanders 1915 – 1965. – when he was aged 16 and in his final year at Grammar School. It took my breath away. (Click on the photo to enlarge it.) Look how ‘correctly’ he stands, upright and determined to be his best. Sloppy, old man that I am, I almost shed a tear. It reminded me of me.

We try to fight off aging, don’t we Dear Reader, and some of us are successful and others less so. Here is my photo in the same school in 1967 as I became a Prefect in the Lower V1 with my Rugby 1st Team colours on my breast pocket proudly displayed. Just 37 years between us but Dad was already dead. Time is so cruel. It separates us unnecessarily. It isolates us harshly. It crushes us needlessly.  

When I’m out – in the supermarket watching an old woman bent over a shopping trolley as a walking aid, walking in the neighbourhood as I pass a shuffling, old man – I always want to know how their age compares with mine. I often muse that retired people should wear their ages on their backs for all of us to compare. We might consider ourselves old. Born halfway through the century and in our 70s but do you know the age of this old lady? I couldn’t guess it. Linda Bassett, star of Call the Midwife and born in 1950. Do we look that old? Do we just kid ourselves we don’t? Is it all in the genes or the presentation?

Shocked by these thoughts, I feel compelled to try harder. To get fitter. My wife tells me that we don’t look 73. She certainly doesn’t. She could easily pass for 10 years younger even though she worries about her looks constantly. Perhaps that is the answer. She has always worried about it. I know. It has cost me a fortune in face cream, body cream …..

Thursday, 18th July, 2024

Hot, sunny and quite humid today. Strange day. We went to do our weekly Sainsbury’s shop. The roads were silent. The supermarket was empty. It was almost like those Sci-Fi movies where the world has been visited by some lethal bug and only a few people have survived …

Europe generally and Greece (104F) in particular are entering their third heatwave of the summer. We even hit 82F today and there is hotter to come tomorrow. Really enjoyable feeling as the day wore on although exercise in the Gym was quite sweaty this afternoon.

Lovely to see the enthusiasm of Andy Burnham in interview yesterday as he reacted to the Labour Legislative programme set out in the King’s Speech which included devolution of additional powers and responsibilities to Mayors and local areas. Of course, one of these responsibilities will be to push the house building programmed ahead. More than 10,000 new homes a year every year for the next 5 years under the Places for Everyone plan plus vastly improved transport links including extension of the tram service.

Of course, Andy Burnham is just one of an increasing number of mainly Labour executive mayors who will be now charged with levelling up because it cannot be a top-down process. It had to be ground roots up like all natural growth. Great to see Starmer addressing European Leaders this morning at Blenheim Palace – birthplace of Churchill – and talking about closer union and increased co-operation.

We retired in 2009 and I always worried about the natural erosion of the value of pensions over time. Although our (gold plated says The Telegraph) Pensions are automatically inflation proofed, usually people feel another sort of erosion by the increase in earnings which, over time, exceed inflation and make pensioners feel relatively less well off.

As this graph starkly illustrates, we could not have retired at a more fortunate time, economically speaking. Since 2010, Teachers’ Pay has declined by 9% (inflation adjusted) while Teachers’ Pensions have increased by 20%. There are reasons to be cheerful, Dear Reader. Things can only get better and they will.

Friday, 19th July, 2024

Another Bikini Day. I’ve got mine on – just. At 9.00 am, the temperature is 23F/75F and the hottest time of the day down here is around 3.00 pm. I watered the garden yesterday in preparation. A couple of hours lawn mowing this morning if I can cope.

I can honestly say, I’ve never had my hair ‘Done’. I have it trimmed occasionally by my wife but it is a minimal performance apart from me complaining that it takes too long. I don’t like sitting still under a hairdresser’s cape. Pauline has her hair ‘Done’ but even there, it is moderate and natural. Her hair is very ‘fine’ and only needs trimming and shaping itself. She has never had it coloured, permed, rollered, or anything artificial.

I was reminded of this today by an article extolling the virtues of the ‘Big Hair’ of former MP Penny Mordaunt which is apparently achieved by a blow dry. I thought that was a sexual act but I now know it is done to your head. It makes the hair stand out and look bigger than it really is and it accentuates an appearance of strength and power. Of course, the adoring article was in a Right Wing newspaper which is struggling to stay relevant. Look at what the body language in this photograph is attempting to say. Mordaunt on the Right jabbing a finger aggressively towards her opponent as she dresses in padded shouldered power jacket and Big Hair.

Of course, Mordaunt lost her seat. Lots of time on her hands now to cultivate even bigger hair. Her opponent on the Left is Angela Rayner, a Northern girl who grew up in poverty on a council estate with a bi-polar mother. When she was young, she didn’t have books in the house. Her mother could not read or write. And here she is, Deputy Prime Minister. You only have to look at her body language leaning back, open hand and no ‘Big Hair’ – total contrast to her aggressive loser. I have heard people denigrate her for her Northern voice. Mistake. She doesn’t need to make herself look strong because she is strong. Her strength was forged in struggles of her upbringing. Moral of today’s Blog: Don’t go for BIG Hair, Dear Reader.

Cook has just picked another Kilo of Green Beans this morning. Love Green Beans and they are so good for me.

This week I’ve had a major problem with my Desktop computer. Computers have been a natural extension of my consciousness for more than 30 years and are indispensable to my way of life. It is amazing how shaky it can make me feel when that is threatened as it was a few days ago. Fortunately, I managed to solve my problem which had been caused by an automatic update over night but, this morning, a global MS Windows glitch has been reported which we are told was also probably caused by a badly checked system update. In this event it is affecting global systems which use the MS Windows platform – airports, hospitals, large worldwide corporations, etc. Lots of people around the world are feel quite shaky this morning.

Saturday, 20th July, 2024

The radio woke me this morning at 5.45 am to the story of a woman whose two, grown-up daughters were murdered in a local park. There is something about that time in the morning that I feel most receptive and most emotionally vulnerable and the story, which I was familiar with from the past, evoked emotion in me which I didn’t expect in my waking moments.

We don’t actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.
T. S. Elliot

In talking about it, the girls’ Mother was just making sure that their appalling death didn’t go unnoticed, wasn’t disappearing without trace but remains relevant to today.

I have always been fascinated by bereavement and loss. They are different things but evoke similar responses. Separation through distance or time are no less painful. People who have been married for a long time, for example, find it hard to imagine how they would cope alone. People who are separated by time and space, for whatever reason, long to reach out and touch. Often, one way they can do that is vicariously through physical objects from that connection.

When Pauline went to College in 1970, her Mother, who had no money, scraped together what was needed to make sure her daughter had what they thought was required for her next step. She bought her a lovely trunk – the biggest and best one from a shop on Yorkshire Street in Oldham – for her things to be stored away at the College hall of residence in London. Pauline never forgets the sacrifices her Mother made for her and the trunk came with us everywhere we went to connect her to her Mum. Girls are good like that.

It even came to Greece with us but that was its last journey. We couldn’t fit it in the car when we drove home for the last time. Now some Greek is enjoying it but we have the memories just as we do of the Settle or Pew that I bought Pauline for her 30th birthday from an Antique Shop in Delph. It had come, originally, from Oldham Town Hall so was intimately connected with our lives. The Greek island of Sifnos is the final resting place of a piece of furniture made for Oldham – quite fitting really. That single piece of furniture has seen so much history and quite a lot of it was mine.

I am writing this at 11.30 am and, at this time 7 years ago, I was standing in a Square in the Tuscan city of Lucca. It is the most beautiful place and features one of my ‘heroes’, Giacomo Puccini. We were driving around Tuscany and had stopped for a few days here. It was 7 years ago but it feels like a life time ago and yesterday all wrapped into one. The thing about this memory, though, is that I can go back there any time I want and touch it again. The agonisingly painful thing is that there are others we can never revisit.

Sunday, 7th July, 2024

The first full day of a Labour government and look what we’ve achieved already. England last won the World Cup under the Labour government of Harold Wilson and now, just maybe, we can win a European cup under the Labour government of Keir Starmer.

Not only the football has been facilitated by Labour. The weather I’ve been calling for – strong, consistent rain – has suddenly appeared over night as well. Already, I have very few remaining things to wish for, Dear Reader. I’m going to have to helicopter in the rest.

Talk about helicoptering in, the new Labour government (I love that sentence.) has a primary aim of building more houses – affordable and Council Houses. An emotional Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester was interviewed this morning and pledged to play his part in that building programme. It is what the North has needed for so long and will contribute to levelling up. We’ve had huge, housing development down here for the past decade as demand for commuter homes has grown.

The Telegraph has featured Bosham South Coast village harbour which it describes as a Pensioners’ paradise and somewhere that dreads the warmer weather because everyone flocks there. There are so many second homes that the inhabitants want to go back to the 1950s. I’ve got news for them, you can’t go back but you can revisit and bring the best of the past into the future – hence the helipcopter.

Labour has promised to bulldoze NIBYISM and press ahead with planning reform to enable those houses to be built. An acceleration of the demolition of terrible old housing in the North to be replaced by brand new, well insulated and technologically advanced homes at affordable prices really will contribute to levelling up and growing the economy.

Monday, 8th July, 2024

A depressingly overcast morning. The builders are doing their final day for now. Their last jobs are outside with some re-pointing before the rain starts. Being totally impractical, it’s great to have a friendly team to provide a handful of different skills. It’s even better that we have no outstanding and niggling maintenance problems at all around the property.

It is hard to believe that it is a full decade ago today since we sold our Greek home. A full decade ago since we were part of a vibrant, Greek island community. We have all aged and some have died but these milestones mark the march of history. We have met up with some of our island friends since leaving – in Athens when we stay for a week or so and when they came to London to see us but the cat never made it.

We often wonder what became of the cat which adopted us – rather than the other way round. She was incredibly assertive and demanding but suspicious and distant. Of all those we left behind, the cat was the one we felt we were deserting most.

The concept of Levelling Up which Johnson & the Tories (tribute band) parroted but didn’t deliver is being picked up by the new, Labour government as it pushes out power and decision making to the 4 nations and the many regions. Andy Burnham was quite emotional yesterday about the thought of being handed more resources for Greater Manchester which has gone entirely Labour apart from for two Lib.Dem. constituencies. Unlike Johnson, Labour won’t desert their constituency.

In my reading of local newspapers this morning, two juxtaposed reports hit me starkly. The Yorkshire Live had this ‘shocking’ item of a herd of cows in Ripon sounding like an earthquake as they charged down the street. Must have woken the blue-rinse brigade from their slumbers.

Contrast that with this report in the Manchester Evening News about two gangs rampaging down Yorkshire Street, Oldham, brandishing firearms. Rather shows the differing lives of residents of the shires set against those of the towns and inner cities. These disparities will have to be addressed.

Tuesday, 9th July, 2024

Why does it always rain on me?
Even when the sun is shining
I can’t avoid the lightning

What on earth is happening to the Summer? Another day of warm but damp. Great for grass but boring for humans.

Our street in July looks out of sorts with the year. I’m going to have to work in the Gym. It has been quite a consistent theme recently.

Parliament will open today and the new Speaker elected. All the new MPs will be sworn in starting this afternoon.

The Labour Government …. The Labour Government has hit the road running. Prime Minister off to America. Foreign Secretary negotiating route back to Europe. Morning meeting with all the regional Mayors like Sadiq Khan, Andy Burnham, Tracy Brabin and even the Tory Mayors, Health Secretary meeting with striking Doctors, Tony Blair offering new policy areas to explore. The vibe is GO!

It is 6 weeks until we fly to Athens so my instinct is to go somewhere else with sunshine in the mean time. This greyness is so depressing. We might as well be living in Wales, for goodness sake. This morning, I’ve been looking at the sunspots of Barcelona and Naples. I know the school holidays are starting soon so flight seats may be tight especially with the weather in UK. Watch this space.

Wednesday, 10th July, 2024

One minute we were desperate for rain and now we’re not. Fortunately, the day is dry and bright. Going to get some work done outside. At least I won’t have to do any watering which is just as well because our Southern Water Bill has arrived online today and our annual payment will be about £1000.00 which is double that of 3 years ago. Of course, I am being blamed rather than the person who does all the washing. I am preparing a poster featuring my Management Principle: Less Washing. More Garden Watering. We’ll see if it enters the consciousness.

Of course my choices are cheap compared to my cleaner. Just 15 years ago today, she was going to Vidal Sassoon‘s in Leeds at a cost of £70.00. I store these things up you know. Actually, she was going to go back there when we drive up soon but is shocked to find it has closed. In fact they only have two salons left in UK – London and Manchester. Be interesting to find out what the Manchester top stylist charges this time.

Ten years ago today, we were packing the car in the garage of our Greek house with everything we could cram in. Although we sold a few days before, unlike in UK, we negotiated to stay in it until we could book travel arrangements off the island. Anything we couldn’t pack – and we had sold all the furniture – was collected by our friends to give to poor people they knew on the island.

We had bought tickets for the ferry to Piraeus and booked a hotel on the Peloponnese near the Patras port where we would get a ferry to Italy. From Piraeus, we would drive through Athens, out on to the Εθνική Οδός / National Road across the Corinth Canal, through Patras and on up the coast to Kaminia. It is a drive of about 230 km and takes about 2hrs 30 mins.

We had been using the Poseidon Palace Hotel, Kaminia for quite a few years as we drove down to the house and again as we drove back.

Of course, I had also booked a Superfast Ferry for the 24hr trip up the Adriatic from the new Patras Port to Ancona and then Hotels in Parma (Italy), Mulhouse (Alsace) and Reims and Calais (France).

Ten years, Dear Reader. Ten years. What has happened to you in the past 10 years? In the lives of so many of us of my age, there are so many landmarks of people and places, People from our lives die. We have our own health challenges and retirement allows us the time and money to travel. But can you clearly remember? No? You need a Blog.

I’m working on another 30 years after the news I received this morning. Never let people talk the NHS down. The average man of my age should have a Prostate Specific Antigen number of 4.0 and below. This morning the Oncology team contacted me to say that my PSA was just 0.37. I couldn’t be happier but, not only that, I will be reassessed every 6 months for the rest of my life AND I will get a full body Ct Scan annually. What a fantastic service. How lucky am I?

Thursday, 11th July, 2024

Glorious morning for all sorts of reasons. The weather is warm, sunny and beautiful. The blue of the sky is so full of joy. We have a Labour Government which will see me through to my mid 80s at the least. We are in the football final which will make me (a bit) happy for a couple of days until they lose to Spain. I have had great news about my health and wonderfully reassuring news about the ongoing monitoring of my future health from the NHS. I have lovely, caring people around me and at a distance. There is a nagging pain threaded through this which, like a tooth ache impinges and detracts from the happiness but I have resolved to sort that out.

I put on weight over the year of my cancer treatment and I am having real problems getting rid of it. Particularly, I am having problems punishing myself for that weight gain and forcing myself through the pain of self denial. I think my cancer diagnosis and treatment made me see the shortness of life and freed me to self indulge. Now, I’m struggling to break that lifestyle. Feeling affluent in Retirement doesn’t help. I can have what I want. It doesn’t mean I should. I am struggling to accept that but accept it I must. If I’m going to live another 30 years, the NHS may help but ultimately only I can do it.

I have proved that you can’t do it by exercise alone. I try to stay active throughout the day. This morning, I will spend two hours mowing and gardening. This afternoon, I will spend two hours in the Gym. By the time I go to bed, I am tired. The interesting thing is that the tiredness I feel at the end of a day now in retirement is so totally different from the tiredness I felt while I was working. Brain Dead was the end of a working day but not body tired. Totally out on my feet is how I feel nowadays but my head is still lively as hell. It is an uncomfortable combination.

Great news from Oldham … and you don’t hear that very often but the historic, iconic, Coliseum Theatre which was threatened with closure under a pile of debt and a lack of funding has been saved after a protracted campaign by many of the living alumni including Julie Hesmondhalgh. First opened in 1885, the theatre was the training ground for so many well known actors. Charlie Chaplin, Eric Sykes, Dame Thora Hird and Dora Bryan all performed there and it was the training ground of so many well known actors such as Bernard Cribbins. Sally Dynevor, otherwise known as Sally Metcalfe from her 36-year-long tenure in Coronation Street, wrote: “My dreams of being an actor came from Oldham Coliseum.

I had a brief and tenuous connection with the Coliseum in my early days of teaching when I helped out with the Theatre Workshop which was started there in the late 1960s and which inspired so many to go into acting like Anna Friel, Sarah Lancashire and Suranne Jones.

Of course, just as life is on the sunny side, a storm comes along to douse the euphoria. My computer – the extension of my consciousness – updated its software over night and has failed to start up this morning. Although I save everything up in the cloud, the loss of my machine would be annoying as well as costing me £2,000.00 needlessly. I have spent a few hours repairing it and being something of a genius, Dear Reader …..

….. this is how it looks this evening. Back to full working order. It would have cost me £200.00 if it could be repaired by a technician and £2000.00 if I needed a new one. Joy of joys, my efforts have paid off and all is restored. If only all problems could be so easily fixed. Still, as you will know, Dear Reader, persistence always pays off.

Friday, 12th July, 2024

Almost the middle of July already and Life is running away again. Nothing specific on the agenda today although there are always jobs to be done. It rained over night so work in the garden will have to wait. My Office needs tidying and the Gym needs a bit of attention but I will have to send the cleaner in first. It’s a bit of a problem in Retirement which is why I like to be in contact with people from my past.

I am a member of a Whatsapp group of old friends from College days. It’s called Bookends after the Simon & Garfunkel song of the time. It’s light hearted banter – nonsense really – but some is amusing. This cartoon rather sums up the level of the conversation. I must admit that I am more interested in the concept of talking each day to people across the span of time from more than 50 years ago. I try to steer the threads to Politics but I’m not very successful. This morning at 6.15 am, I was sent a message from an ancient man who lives in Knaresborough extolling the delights of Gypsy Creams – the biscuits.

If you know me at all, you will know that I am data/target/achievement driven. I need it. I need a sense of achievement. I pursue it relentlessly. I will not give up or give in. It was something that someone in Business observed when we announced our retirement. What will you set for achievement? I laughed it off at the time but, after 15 years playing out, it remains a significant theme in my life. I look for and set my own targets however minor.

My morning starts by challenging myself to meet or beat an ongoing target. It’s mad, I happily concede but it has to be done. It involves shaving. Last year, after more than 50 years of shaving badly, I bought a new shaver and it came with an app for my smartphone and an instruction video. It completely changed my shaving action and the quality of my shave. As I shave – using small, circular motions – the app monitors my progress. When I’ve finished, it awards me marks or percentages of success in following the guidelines. After a year, I don’t allow myself to fall below 90% Ninja and I try hard to get above that. My record is 97% Ninja.

The shaver is inverted and placed in the cleaner. It switches itself on and runs through a cleaning program using a solution which last for 30 cleans before it needs to be replaced. My phone app warns me I need to change the cleaning fluid refill pot. The cleaning programme is just long enough to clean my teeth with my electric brush. When the shaver-cleaner says 100% done, I stop brushing my teeth immediately. Isn’t this exciting? If I’m feeling brave, I get on the scales in the hope that I beat my previous reading and then …

Down at Breakfast, testing my INR with the aim of being my optimum 2.5, checking blood pressure with the aim of being a reasonable 120/65. Then I unstack the dishwasher and I try to beat my record time irrespective of how full its is. And so it goes on. Sheer, certifiable madness … but it keeps me sane. And so many of my generation do the same. One has to beat his cycle ride time each time he goes out. Another is trying to visit ever more numbers of ruined churches. Another has her hair done every Friday in an effort to banish time. We all fight to control and measure our lives.

I’m getting a bit worried about my memory at the moment. I am having struggles recalling the names of people and plants that would have come immediately in the past. This woman, as you will all know, is Beatrice Webb, politician, sociologist, economist, one of the founders of the London School of Economics, socialist, Labour historian, social reformer and founding Fabian. She is intricately woven through the weft of Labour History. There was a time I could quote you chapter and verse but yesterday, I could not recall her name.

This plant grows wild all over Greece. It is beautiful. I grew it up in Yorkshire although not as successfully. This morning, I couldn’t for the life of me remember its name. I had to resort to Google to remind me of Phlomis. Should I be worried, Dear …. Thingy? Must try harder!

Saturday, 13th July, 2024

Gorgeously sunny morning with clear, blue sky and really warm. Going to spend the day out in the garden cleaning up after the builders. Got to pressure wash the patio where repointing has left cement staining. Even I can do this. The last of the plants I have been growing on in the cold frames are going to be planted out for late summer colour. So a day at home.

A friend living on the North Yorkshire coast sent me this photo from her morning walk in the driving rain as the yachts appear out of a thick, sea fog. The lottery of location can be cruel.

Of course, there will be time for writing, for chatting across the country and for Gym work. The problem with my computer on Thursday is behind me but the ramifications of that breakdown have been to be extra careful with its maintenance. I have had Gigabit Fibre Broadband since I moved in here. As new houses go up in our area, everyone will want the same. BT Openreach vans are constantly parked in the area as cabinets are installed with new connections.

In the past, the more users come on stream, the slower everyone’s connection speed becomes. This is called contention ratio. In that distant past, internet download speeds of 32 Mbps were thought to be good. Upload would be around 5 Mbps.

Now, virtually everything in my house relies on internet bandwidth from house phone and smartphones to radios and TVs plus, of course, iPads, Kindles and computers. This was long predicted as the internet of things. This morning, I ran a speed test and the results were excellent. Can you believe an upload speed of over 100 mbps, Dear Reader? You can whoop if you want!

I’m going to need a few months of sun this winter so I’m looking at the Canary Islands where that is at least guaranteed. This morning I found a set of managed apartments which offer the quality that you need for a month away. I just want to move my normal life to somewhere warmer and sunnier. It has a good kitchen (✓), broad band (✓), Streamed TV + Netflix (✓), Laundry facilities (✓), a heated pool (✓), a nice, big sunny balcony (✓), and a hot tub (✓). It’s in Adeje and close to Siam Park and all the shops (✓). It will be under active discussion this weekend. Thinking of a month before Christmas and a month afterwards.

Sunday, 30th June, 2024

Warm but a little bit overcast this morning. Wish it would rain but it won’t. We’re not forecast for any until next Sunday. Up late this morning – well 7.15 am – because we weren’t in bed until 1.00 am. I have absolutely no idea why but we watched the last 30 mins of the Glastonbury performance of Coldplay last night. I know absolutely nothing about them, have never listened to them or watched them before. Actually, I was attracted to the pictures of a lit up Glastonbury sky with thousands of wristbands and pyrotechnics. It looked fantastic on a big TV as if we were actually there.

Of course we weren’t. I have never been to a Festival in my life. I hate huge, noisy, sweaty crowds like that. I prefer to watch in comfort as I did last night. When it was over, I had to watch the Newspaper review before going to bed.

If you have been following politics in general and this election campaign in particular as I have, you will be very familiar with the Ming Vase Strategy. Can you imagine the cost of dropping one and seeing it smashed into tiny pieces at your feet. That’s what happened to Neil Kinnock and that’s what happened to Jeremy Corbyn who didn’t take care but went for broke … literally.

This election was always likely to be a Labour victory after 14 yeas of these lunatic Tories and their selfish, greedy politics. However, there have been so few Labour governments in the past 100 years that they have to tread softly and carefully. They have had to avoid dropping the Ming Vase of Victory.

Since I was born in 1951, when the Attlee government (1945–1951), which brought in the National Health Service, narrowly lost to the Conservatives, it wasn’t until Harold Wilson’s win (1964–1970) that I first experienced a Labour government which gave me the chance to properly educate myself through the Open University. After 4 years in Opposition, Wilson and Labour (1974 – 1979) were returned to Office as Callaghan succeeded. Five years of a Tory government were followed by Blair/Brown Labour government (1997 – 2010). Labour hasn’t been in power since.

Labour has been in power for just 24 of the past 73 years. We are about to elect it for the next 15 years. In that time, it will transform Britain and re-join the EU. It will bring in a green economy and nationalise essential services. It will improve public services and reduce cronyism and government corruption. It will broaden the franchise to provide 16 yr olds with the vote and may even bring in Proportional Representation to ensure the Tories never get back into power.

I suspect Keir Starmer will be succeeded by Wes Streeting and by 2039, when I am 88, Dear Reader, the mantra will be Time for a Change.

Monday, 1st July, 2024

Welcome to the new month. Farewell to June 2024. It wasn’t the best anyway. So many things missing! At least this will be a good week. We will vote these dire Tories out and install your caring, sharing Co-op party into government. Then, on Saturday under a new government, England will suddenly rediscover their footballing ability and thrash Switzerland.

If you do nothing else today, do this. Look at your energy supplier’s tariffs and compare them with others you could get. You should do that regularly anyway but, today, Energy prices went down by about 7% nationally because of the price cap readjustment. They will almost certainly go back up towards the end of the year. Fix now and you will save.

I’ve been with British Gas Dual Fuel for the past 8 years (You’re getting excited now, aren’t you Dear Reader?) because they are a class act. Now, they are about the cheapest around and I’ve fixed until September 2025 …. when I’ll be 74!

It’s getting really scary now. Yesterday, I was talking about the Ming Vase Strategy of the Election Campaign. Labour have a huge lead and have been tiptoeing across the weeks, carrying the Ming Vase of public opinion. To all our relief, they haven’t dropped it. They still hold their 20% lead that they started out with. They won’t drop it now but will I? Will we?

Old age is proving very much like the Ming Vase which has to be carried carefully. Our bodies and minds are delicate and increasingly droppable as we age. I am constantly monitoring, checking, trying again. I’ve never had so many things go wrong with me as I have in the past 5 years. Feels like we are fighting off the signs of age in a constant battle.

I do stamina work which raises my heart rate but I need to do more resistance work to increase my muscle mass – rowing and weight lifting. I don’t use our rower enough and I haven’t used the dumb bells for ages. I am going to force myself to follow a programme.

Even more important than that for me is to work on my balance. It’s never been good in my youth but it is definitely weaker now. Can you stand on one leg for one full minute with your eyes closed, Dear Reader? I fall over after about 20 seconds. While it doesn’t matter too much at the moment, it will become increasingly dangerous as I age and my bones become more brittle. You see so many old people who fall, break a hip and never recover mobility. It is certainly life shortening.

Tuesday, 2nd July, 2024

Lovely, sunny morning although not particularly warm for July. Didn’t sleep well last night. To bed at 11.30 pm and awake at 4.00 am. Head full of thoughts.

The next few days are going to be politics, politics, politics. All around Europe and America the populist Right are in the ascendancy. Complex problems are answered with simplistic solutions that they claim will be easy to implement and solve the population’s problems at a stroke. We have seen it in Italy, Holland, Belgium, and we are seeing it in France and USA currently. We saw it in UK with the Farage/Johnson axis. Hopefully, Thursday will mark the start of the fight back of grown up policies and rational solutions to complex societal problems.

People like me have long wondered how people could have been taken in by them but the Manchester Evening News sent me two interesting articles yesterday which goes a long way to explaining the choices. I’ve known for a long time from the analysis but this type of visceral report crystalises the forgotten, ignored, impoverished, second class hurt that the Northern Red Wall seats feel and who thought a Messiah led by Brexit would lead them out of the desert and into the promised land of milk & honey. These mirages of water in an arid land was always just that – a mirage but it has taken all this time for them to realise that they had been taken in by a false prospectus.

Ironically, The Telegraph ran a story on Sunday about East Preston – our neighbouring village – which has the highest density of rich pensioners in Britain. Over 51% of people in our area have above average income and are claiming the State Pension. They are also much healthier than average pensioners in the country. Of course, the right wing Telegraph‘s intention was to argue we don’t need the State Pension which should be considered a benefit and not an entitlement. Good luck with that.

Although we all paid into National Insurance and were told it would fund our safety-net, State Pension and Healthcare free at the point of delivery, the contributions were never hypothecated or ring fenced and were all subsumed into general taxation. That’s why State provision has to be constantly argued for and protected.

Had a wobble when I woke up in the early hours. In so many past elections, Labour have failed to fulfil polling predictions or have dipped in the final few days. I would be desolate if the exit poll at 10.00 pm on Thursday evening shows something like that. Can you imagine 5 more years of the Tories and their appalling management of the country? I think I would just have to buy a property in Europe and leave. We go to Athens soon and I’ve just booked a return trip to Thessaloniki. We’ll see what else we can do in addition.

Wednesday, 3rd July, 2024

Warm but overcast this morning. No rain again. The builders are still working in the house so I will be working in the garden out of the way.

I was talking to an ‘Arty’ girl from the North of England yesterday. I was saying that we had builders in and they are doing work outside the house as well as in the Lounge, Kitchen, Cloakroom and an Ensuite Bathroom. In other words, they are everywhere I go and it winds me up and disrupts my routines. Her immediate reply was that she lived a fairly chaotic life and would struggle to cope with routine.

I reflected on that later and thought, actually, I do allow routines into my life quite extensively. If they are disrupted, I try hard to accept change on principle but I don’t find it as easy as I used to do. My wife says I have borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder. I have written about it before but it is definitely getting more pronounced and it is manifested in my desire to maintain patterns of behaviour and patterns of physical arrangement in my world.

Out in the garden, I like to control nature, to get rid of weeds however well they flower, to trim grass edges, to plant things in straight lines in a parks & gardens style as my wife describes it. She would mix planting of flowers and vegetables in a fashion I couldn’t possibly live with. Guess who wins. Yes, of course I do.

As I’ve written before, my wife and I are like Jack Sprat and his wife. I am obsessed with tidiness and she is obsessed with cleanliness …. and she really is obsessed with it. I’m surprised that we have any floors left she cleans them so often. My (mild) OCD leads to me straightening everything she has just put down, lining up edges and putting things back in their place.

I noticed while I was doing academic work which involved writing papers based on the reading of dozens of books. My Office would start off as utter chaos with notes, pages of books marked for quotes, scattered all over the desk and spilling out on the floor. Gradually, as I wrote and re-wrote the paper, the books and papers would come in towards me. By the time the final draft was complete and the paper printed, the floor would be clear, the books would be back on the shelf (in alphabetical order), the papers would be filed and order would be restored. Order out of chaos. Creation out of anarchy.

Thursday, 4th July, 2024

Well, this is it. The end of the Tories. I’m going to work as a Polling Centre Identity Checker. I can spot a Labour Voter from 100 paces. Few others will be let in. Actually, the most important theme across the country involves the tactic under the banner

because Tactical Voting will be the order of the day right across the country. We would even condone you voting for the racist Faragist party if it helps to defeat the Tory. The most optimistic sign this morning is that it is warm and sunny. The conditions are right to vote the Tories out.

Of course, there are polling centres and then there are POLLING CENTRES. Most of us get drab Community Centres or Primary Schools but one of my friends in North Yorkshire gets a neo-Gothic Cathederal/Priory. Still, it’s the result that counts and I will probably be on an all-nighter as the results roll in.

We will all be looking for those Portillo moments when top cabinet ministers realise they have lost their seats and their jobs. There is little more satisfying than that. The moment when arrogant Tory, Michael Portillo realised he had been beaten by Labour candidate, Stephen Twigg in 1997 was a joy to behold. Let’s have many more of those!

What was very heartening was to find a Labour rep outside the poll asking to have our poll card numbers to crosscheck those that said they would vote Labour were doing so and then, when we got home Labour canvassers on the street going from door to door chivvying people up to get out and vote. Only Labour took the trouble to do that.

Friday, 5th July, 2024

A new day has dawned, has it not? The words of Tony Blair in 1997 are as apposite this morning as they were then. Labour were in power for 14 years then and this time we’re looking for 15.

The hype of the election campaign made me excited and nervous. It was hard to believe it could be realised. The Exit Polls at 10.00 pm last night suggested it wouldn’t be quite as good as we had dared to dream. The thought that the rabid right wing racist party could take 13 seats was a shock.

With 5 seats to declare many of which are so close they are recounts, Labour has already exceeded the Exit prediction, Lib Dems are going gangbusters after a fantastic campaign, Greens are up to 4 seats and reform are back to just 4 seats.

Wales has gone totally Red. Scotland has only 9 SNP MPs – down from 41. Sinn Féin, the political arm of the IRA, have won the majority on Northern Ireland. The move is a step nearer to a united Ireland which should have happened long ago. George Galloway duped Rochdale once but even they saw through him quite quickly and voted him out. All is well with the world.

Went down to the beach to let off steam and scream relief. It was raining, thank goodness. I have been wishing for two things and now I’ve got them both.

Saturday, 6th July, 2024

The sun is out, the sky is blue, the breeze is tugging at the trees blowing away the detritus left by the stale, old Tories and making room for the new brooms of serious politicians. The Labour government under Prime Minister Starmer will meet for the first cabinet today. This is the first day of the rest of all our lives.

Health and Housing will be early subjects to get going on. Reducing waiting lists and building more affordable housing/council housing will feature loudly. I will be more interested in the people in the cabinet. I love people and their lives, their back stories.

1. Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, MP for Leeds West is a Maths specialist – Oxford and LSE – she played chess and won a national championship. Worked at the Bank of England. Her sister is also an MP and Labour campaign manager.
   
   
2. David Lammy, Foreign Secretary, MP for Tottenham, Lawyer, Havard educated where he met and became friend of Obama. Lammy has spent the past few years cultivating good relationships with European politicians particularly in France and Germany. Augers well for my hopes of re-entry.
   
   
3. Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary, MP for Pontefract, Castleford, educated Oxford and Harvard, daughter of a trades union leader. Shadowed the Home Office for over a decade.
   
   
4. Wes Streeting, Health Secretary, MP for Ilford, grandfather was an armed robber who spent time in prison, and his grandmother became embroiled in his crimes and ended up in Holloway jail, where she met Christine Keeler. According to Streeting, they stayed in touch, and became friends. From that background, Streeting fought his way to a Cambridge education.
   
   
5. Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Levelling Up, MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, born to a Mother who could not read or write, pregnant at 16, trades unionist.

One of the really pleasing elections for me is that of Paul Waugh in Rochdale. I have ‘known’ him for years. He was borne very near to Spotland, Rochdale football ground. He is a local lad who I have known as the political editor of the Huffington Post, Politics Home, London Evening Standard and The Independent.

Paul Waugh defeated the political chancer, George Galloway, who was only there for a few weeks and couldn’t even be bothered attending the count announcement on election night. Waugh will be a typical Labour MP fighting for his home land.

Sunday, 23rd June, 2024

Lovely morning. Warm and sunny. Breakfast with the doors open. Doesn’t lovely weather make you feel better about your life, Dear Reader? Gives a sort of optimism and hope for the future.

Eight years ago today, I was feeling fairly hopeless. The Brexit Vote was lost – narrowly but lost. I found it hard to comprehend. I thought it was madness. What were they thinking? Well, what emerged was they thought Brexit was going to radically change their lives. It was the poorer, less educated, Working Class who thought leaving Europe would bring a Land of Milk & Honey as the snake-oil salesmen, Johnson & Farage, promised them for their vote. It was nonsense then and it is nonsense now.

The better off and better educated largely voted Remain because it was obvious that leaving our closest and largest trading Bloc would be ruinous and so it is proving. The Fishermen were the first to realise they had been duped as they lost their markets for so much of their catch. The Farmers, who voted in droves to Leave, suddenly found that they would lose all the EU Agricultural Subsidies that they had survived on. Why couldn’t they see that coming before they voted? Supply Chains for Just-in-Time processes have been terribly disrupted. Time-sensitive products like flowers, foodstuffs have been made incredibly more difficult and, therefore, more expensive.

On the day, the vote was 51.9% for Leave to 48.1% to Remain. It was very close even then. I haven’t changed my mind but many who voted Leave have changed their minds. The sentiment is completely reversed to 40% Leave – 60% Remain. Their regret is palpable and no wonder.

How could Brexit make up for living in the North? How could it provide the manual labourers with little educational attainment and few skills a better life. Getting their country back was an empty gesture and those who pedalled it have largely paid for it. Labour will inherit this disenchantment and will have to tack back towards Europe.

It may take two or three parliaments but it will happen. Labour can’t say it openly now but, if they want growth in our Economy, they will have to re-join the Single Market and the Customs Union. That will be more than half way to re-joining the EU and who knows what else ….?

Monday, 24th June, 2024

Very humid start to the day. We are up early because a couple of builders are arriving to do some jobs for us. Already my friends from Yorkshire have contacted me to say it is very hot …. for North Yorkshire. They’re going to reach 25C in Ilkley today. How will they cope? Typical on a day when we could enjoy the garden that we’ve got builders raking out and repointing the base of the house where it meets the patio. It’s going to be lovely all week for us but we expect the builders to be here at least three days.

Breakfast at the moment is Muesli. I’ve never really been a fan of it before. The commercial stuff is so sweet but it is too hot for porridge so chef makes makes her own mix.

I still have the rolled oats of porridge plus plump, Californian sultanas, flaked coconut, flaked almonds and crushed hazel nuts all soaked in ice cold, skimmed milk. It’s absolutely delicious and gets me through to Supper. Well, I eat fruit during the day – bananas, cherries, grapes, melon – and I drink lots of almond milk, tea and coffee.

Going to Athens in a few weeks. Let’s hope Gatwick doesn’t catch Manchester’s disease. All those people had their flights cancelled because of a power outage. The ones who got away on a flight were only able to take cabin luggage. Hold luggage was left behind. That’s where our latest trend would pay off. Paying extra for seats with Speedy Boarding, Fast Track Security and 2 carry-on bags each, one of which is a suitcase, makes life so much more enjoyable and relaxed. We still took too many clothes.

Athens will be screaming hot. August is a time that many Greeks decamp to the islands where they hope it will be a bit cooler. Water becomes ever more important. We will enjoy a slightly quieter city because of that. The hotel is cool all the time so we can always retreat there if needed. I love Athens and I love the heat so it’s a win all round.

While we are there, we might take a ferry to a near-ish island of Aegina. Never been there and it would be nice to see somewhere new. Looks interesting. What do you think, Dear Reader?

Tuesday, 25th June, 2024

It’s 10.00 am and the day is lovely – blue sky, strong sun, 24C/75F. My friends from Yorkshire have already contacted me to say they have the same. The builders are back and are continuing to work on repairing resettlement problems that we have allowed to remain but now think movement of our new-build house has ceased. I expect them to be here for at least one and maybe two more days.

I always find workmen in the house a bit difficult. How much do you take an interest in them and how much do you just let them get on with what they are doing? How much of your normal activities can you continue and how much do you need to retreat behind a door. I try to make them welcome, offer them coffee, check they know what is required and then go to my Office out of their way. It means that I can indulge myself in reading and writing for a while without interruption although I do have this on in the background.

Because I am so exciting, I do find the Post Office Inquiry intermittently gripping. Today, they are grilling the Horizon Software Designer – an IT expert who knew it was open to outside manipulation. It will be crucial evidence. While I am following this, I am reading my emails, checking my Texts and Whatsapps and preparing pieces for my Blog. I am also reading every newspaper on my newsfeed.

The Times has a piece on the trend for Tactical Voting. The election itself is as much about getting the Tories out as it is about positively choosing someone else. Choosing anyone but the Tories is a thing. MEN sent me a piece about Red Wall disaffection. It featured the old Heywood and Middleton and the new Blackley and Middleton South constituencies. The new constituency is being fought by the long time sitting MP, Graham Stringer.

Clearly there is wide spread disillusion with Tories and Labour will take the seat but I was amused to read the two examples of discontent cited. One man said, All the time I’ve lived here, this tree outside my house has been growing and no one had come to cut it back. Another couple said, We have lived in Langley for 40 years and it has gone right down hill. Anyone who knew Langley 40 years ago will know there was no hill for it to go down. It was at the bottom then.

There will be some areas which will become even more extreme in their desperation – Bolton, for example, but the Red Wall are largely regretting their support for Brexit and the Tories. What were they really expecting – a Faragist land of milk and honey?

I was expecting a warm day and, at 1.00 pm the temperature has reached 29C /84F. One of our builders is sweating in the Kitchen. He used to work in Athens and lived in Corfu (small world) but he’s still suffering. I’m lapping it up out in the garden although I’d rather be in Kamares right now.

I snatched this photo from the live feed filming the harbour as the ferry approached. I remember the buzz of excitement that the movement of people and vehicles on an otherwise remote Greek island can produce. I would like to taste it one more time. How about you, Dear Reader?

Wednesday, 26th June, 2024

We didn’t fall below 18C/65F all night. I didn’t sleep well although not for that reason. By 9.00 am, it was 24C/75F and as I write at mid day, we are just going over 29C/84F. I’ve spent the morning watering and chef has been harvesting vegetables for Supper.

From fork to plate in 50 meters. You can’t do much better than that, Dear Reader. It’s always nice when the effort pays off. I’ve been working on my local street for two or three years, cutting the grass verges, planting and maintaining the flowers in the bed cut out in the grass. I buy some plants and grow the rest from seed. It takes a bit of time but keeps me active and occupied and in touch with the community.

This morning, a distinguished looking chap who introduced himself as Dudley called at my door this morning to thank me for all the work I was doing. He told me he was the chairman of the Development Management Committee. I told him that I did it as much for myself as for anyone else but it was nice to have my efforts recognised. Dudley was quite obviously a Tory voter and would not be comfortable in my company. He hadn’t heard the BBC R4 Today programme this morning which featured our constituency and showed that a lifetime of Conservative rule would be brought to an end next week. In my view, it will remain in Labour hands for at least 10 years and, quite possibly 15. By that stage, I will be 88 and so gaga that I won’t know the difference.

Did you watch the England match last night, Dear Reader? It was so awful, you could need no more persuasion to vote for a change. England’s finest were providing the same display I have seen almost every year since 1966. Only my friend, Kevin, saw it in a positive light and he is already gaga.

Thursday, 27th June, 2024

Incredibly hot and humid night although I slept much better. Out early this morning. Went to collect a couple of pairs of reading glasses I had ordered. I hardly wear distance glasses nowadays apart from when I’m driving. Even then, I can be half way through a journey before I realise I’m not wearing them.

I don’t like to go anywhere without my reading glasses so I now have 5 pairs because I’m always breaking, crushing, sitting on these flimsy things. I like half moon glasses because I think they make me look more intelligent than I am. I have a pair permanently in the car, a pair in the bedroom (Don’t ask?) and a pair in the Office. I have a pair in the Travel Bag and a backup pair. Two pairs of glasses this morning cost me just £90 and Specsavers gave a 50%-off voucher for another pair of glasses. I know an old lady who will use that this week.

I love talking to people and I’m not shy. I was served by a young girl who brought my new glasses to a desk where I had to try them on. As we sat opposite each other with nothing but reading glasses in common, I used my normal ice breaker: How old are you? She was called Emily and she was 21 years old. She had gone to Littlehampton Academy which she quite liked and then gone on to the local College to study Acting. Her great ambition was to be a famous actress. (Not going to happen.) and she was working in Specsavers in the meantime. She wasn’t sure who she would vote for in the General Election (She wasn’t even quite sure when it was or who the candidates were.) but it would be anybody other the Conservatives.

Emily thought that whoever she voted for, she would be well into her 70s before she could retire. I thanked her and left her with: Vote Labour. Lovely girl but I wondered if I was that ignorant and naïve when I was 21. I was certainly vulnerable but … We went on to the beach which is close by. The tide was completely out which made it an interesting scene. A few people had actually walked all the way and were swimming.

Felt the warmth, smelt the sea air and then left to do our Sainsbury’s shop. When we got home, my friend from North Yorkshire contacted me to say he was thinking of setting up a virtual College reunion group on Whatsapp. He’s called it Old Friends 69/72 Bookends which is a reference to the years we we at College combined with a quote from a contemporary Paul Simon song:

Time it was
And what a time it was
It was a time of innocence
A time of confidences

Long ago, it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They’re all that’s left you

Paul Simon – Bookends

Actually, pathetic, old man that I am, reading those lyrics again made me really sad.

Friday, 28th June, 2024

A little cooler and a little less sunny this morning, We haven’t had enough rain to encourage grass to grow. I may not need to mow today. In fact, Met. Office forecasts suggest we will be lucky to get any rain at all until this time next week.

We don’t live in Florida or Athens but solar power still has a lot to offer in free energy. We already know that the only way we will be able to drive very soon will be using electric vehicles. A North of England company are making a success of selling solar charging units for car batteries. It is a brilliant way to park throughout the day in a workplace and allow the sunlight to trickle charge your vehicle for the drive home.

This innovation in South Korea features a solar panel covered cycle track down the centre of a motorway. The electricity generated is sent to Service Stations for charging cars.

This morning’s news was of a real breakthrough in electric car charging and range. Range has long been the great barrier for me. Just driving to the North of England is a 260 mile distance which, currently would be on the outer edge of possible under one charge. To go on holiday through France and Italy would need multiple charges. If a full charge takes 2 – 3 hours in a service station, the whole thing becomes impossible. Fast charge as in this UK innovation will really change that.

I drive a self-charge hybrid which has massively improved my mpg but most of my weekly trips are 5 – 10 miles which is bad for fuel consumption and could easily be done on electricity. That’s why I’m going to buy a plug-in hybrid. It will allow me to do most of my day to day driving on electric entirely but I will not have to worry if I want to drive 3-400 miles in a day on occasions. In the old days, I used to drive Calais to Ancona non-stop in a 15 hr trip of 900 miles. Whichever car I buy, I doubt I’ll be doing that again.

Saturday, 29th June, 2024

Gloriously warm and sunny morning. The grass is green. The sky is blue. The sun is out. Where are you, Dear Reader? Hope you are having a lovely day as well.

Drove up to Highdown Gardens yesterday evening. It really is only about 5 mins from our house. It is a municipal garden now but was created by Sir Frederick Claude Stern at the turn of the last century during a period when expeditions were going to China and the Himalayas collecting rare and interesting plants. It is a popular walking place with locals but it is also the site of a posh hotel and restaurant.

Many of the original plants from the early collections are in the garden today, particularly one of my favourites – paeonies. I don’t know if you are familiar with them, Dear Reader but their reputation says they are exotic and difficult to grow. Once established, the received view is that they are very difficult to successfully move. We grew them and moved them very successfully in Yorkshire and fell in love with their beauty.

Just by chance, our next door neighbour came back from shopping yesterday and presented us with these, gorgeous paeonies from the florists. They are gracing our Lounge right now …. the flowers not the neighbours. Wouldn’t let them in.

Talk about not letting neighbours in, there was an incredible piece of circularity of experience in the Greek Newspapers this morning. You probably saw it yourself, Dear Reader. Sifnos is the island where we bought a field and built a house. We were aware of the sensitivity of incomers buying up land. It has clearly become more intense over the years since we sold up. The circularity comes from the fact that the article quotes Alkmini Paka, Professor of Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki where we were staying just a couple of weeks ago. I enjoy coincidences like that.

Sunday, 16th June, 2024

Beautiful morning. Just 26C/79F at 8.30 am (Greek) as we went up to the rooftop for Breakfast looking down over the Thermaic Gulf.

Breakfast is becoming a problem. I just can’t eat much more of it. Bacon & Scrambled Egg is a delightful novelty for the first day or two but, by now, my body is saying, Enough! Of course, breakfast for many Greeks is a cheap, dry bread-ring covered in sesame seeds bought from a street vendor’s barrow. In that case, I could do without breakfast at all.

You wouldn’t think these girls know what any kind of breakfast is. I am never going to be as skinny as these two. They are my neighbours Dee (at No. 2), Lecturer in English and Michelle (at No. 3), Copywriter. They are both in their 50s, both have had kids, both have gyms in their garages and both run everywhere. They both say they eat like horses and they both definitely drink a lot but ….

They are on a Hen-Do in Malaga this weekend leaving their husbands at home to look after the houses and mow the lawns. They Whatsapp’d me this photo around midnight last night just to make me feel old and fat and tired and …. Some other neighbours, John & Jill, Whatsapp’d me this morning to ask if they can park on our drive until we get back. They have a skip on theirs while the garden is redesigned. I replied to them totally in Greek to make them work for it. It is lovely to have such nice neighbours.

Monday, 17th June, 2024

Lovely morning. We’re forecast to touch 34C/93F today. We are being incredibly lucky to enjoy such lovely weather. Sunny, hot and a bit sweaty when we want it with an ice-cold, air-conditioned Suite to retreat to when we don’t.

Lovely evening. We’ve eaten so much that we didn’t bother with Supper last night. We just shared a bottle of wine and some nibbles on the balcony before watching the England match. I bet you were watching it as well, Dear Reader. I must admit, it was a bit boring and, of course, it didn’t start here until 10.00 pm and finished at midnight. After all the walking, the heat and a bottle of wine, I was really tired.

While watching the match in Northern Greece, I was talking to my friend in Northern Yorkshire. He wanted to know if I could get it in Bongo Bongo Land. I illustrated it with a photo of my Laptop and iPad and asked him if he had electricity in Yorkshire. Apparently, he has a number of youths in the garden pedalling furiously to power the generator.

I am better at reading Greek than speaking it. I’m less good at that as we get further away from our life in Greece. Walked past this group of old ladies with a stall in the shade. One thrust a leaflet into my hand and said, Welcome.

It takes a lot of Greek words to say a little. I’ve had to enlist assistance by downloading a clever app on my phone. Taking a photo of text in any language leads to it reproducing the photo in English. Just brilliant.

This leaflet was about abuse of the Elderly. I didn’t like to tell them that I’ve been abusing the elderly for years.

Last year we were the only English voices at the hotel. This year, there are quite a few. I met an old guy in the lift. I have two icebreakers in the lift:

1. Where are you from?
2. How old are you?

Both subtle questions as you will acknowledge, Dear Reader. The old guy with a stick and little hair was …. 73! He came from Sunny Scunny. As we quickly guessed, he was from Scunthorpe. What shocked me was … he won a scholarship for Harrogate Grammar. He was there just before I went to Ripon. Strange world!

Tuesday, 18th June, 2024

Well, Dear Reader, you will be pleased to read that we are home safely from our adventure. Last night was a delightful one even though it was our last night for now. I met this alcoholic on my balcony. I’m going to make her my wine taster.

Lovely meal out yesterday evening and then packing for an early off today. Up at 6.00 am and breakfast at 7.00 am. Checkout as the desk called us a taxi for the airport. Straight up to the Executive Lounge for coffee and newspapers. Flight arrived on time.

We were first on – as usual – and settled into our seats at the front of the plane. It always amazes me that some people turn up and sit where they want and then look surprised when they are moved to the seat on their ticket/Boarding Pass. Saw that twice on our flight.

Anyway, the flight went smoothly and we were soon in Gatwick Airport feeling, Has that all happened? I don’t know if it occurs to you but, as I drove back home, I find myself thinking, Just 4 hrs ago I was walking around in Northern Greece. Shuttle to the Long Stay Carpark and then 50 mins home where the temperature was a warm 25C although not a match for the 37C we had left.

The garden had survived and we lifted our first Early Potatoes for Supper with roast Salmon with Pest topping. travelling is always tiring and nothing will get done until tomorrow. In Greek Time, I am writing this at 8.30 pm. Here I am writing it at 6.30 pm while chef cooks Supper.

Wednesday, 19th June, 2024

Woke up early – 5.00 am (UK) and listened to the radio which sent me back to sleep. Didn’t get up until 7.30 am. Lovely, warm and sunny day but we have to go shopping and have Dentist appointments too. They’re all in the Dental Plan and, the older I get, the less deterioration I have with my teeth. Thought it would be the other way round. I was so used to all the elderly complaining about their dentures in my youth that I thought it would be my fate too. Anyway, this morning’s appointment at Calm & Gentle was just a quick check-up producing no work which is pleasing.

Outside in the garden today, we are reaching a gentle, 25C compared with the more savage 37C that we left yesterday. I am desperately watering everything because we’ve gone from a wet May to a bone dry June. When we first went to Greece back in 1981, it was the intense heat that attracted us. Now, we try to take things a bit more carefully.

On our first visit to Sifnos over 40 years ago, this grey-haired senior citizen was a gangly youth, riding his motorbike too fast, chewing gum, ostentatiously wearing his gold necklaces, looking totally disinterested in everything but girls as youth are want to do. We nicknamed him Cool and that stuck for the rest of his days. He was part of the large and influential Boulis family who ran restaurants, owned hotels and farmed the land. Cool had three jobs. He farmed animals – goats, etc, waited on tables in the restaurant and he also served as a rope catcher in the harbour.

Kamares Harbour spends large sections of its time in the serenity of blue skies and warm sunshine. There are few boats or people around. When the ferry arrives, all hell is let loose. Men have to be on the dock to collect the ropes thrown down from the ferry and loop them over the mooring bollards – in choppy seas this is quite a hazardous operation. It would usually require two men to be present each time a ferry docked. Of course, they couldn’t be there all day – there might only be one ferry on some days so Giannis/Cool would leave it until the last minute and then charge down the mountain from his farm on a motor bike and arrive just in time to meet the boat. He would be paid a sum for being always available.

Over the years, we saw young Cool turn from youth to married man with children and responsibilities but this week, we heard that he had gone. He did have a heart attack some years ago while we were there and it seems this latest one has finished him. Heart attacks on remote Greek islands are so often fatal because of slow communication links and poor island facilities.

Islanders joke that when you have a heart attack, you die because it takes 50 mins for a helicopter to arrive from Athens and 50 mins for it to get you back there but the real trouble starts then – assuming you’re still alive. The traffic in Athens is so bad that it takes an age to get an ambulance from the airport to the hospital. If you survive all that, you probably didn’t have a heart attack in the first place.

It is one of the things which decided for us that time had come to depart. The medical facilities on the island are rudimentary and, as we got older, we realised it wasn’t sustainable.

Thursday, 20th June, 2024

Another lovely morning, windless, warm and sunny. The garden is looking good and I hope to enjoy it later. And there should be much later because today is Summer Solstice and The Longest Day. When you’re young, you long for the next day. When you’re old … ah, never let tomorrow come. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be here better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone ….

This is a young person’s song, a song of optimism and future dreams. Am I depressing you, Dear Reader? Nil Desperandum. I’m going out to order a couple of pairs of reading glasses. Go mad with me!

I’m all in favour of political protest and some radical approaches to social change … like the Suffragettes .. but risking damage to hugely significant historical sites is off limits even for me. This goes beyond protest.

It’s hard to believe the political news at the moment. I always expected Labour to oust these Tory lunatics but it looks like they’ll do more than just blow the doors off. Our local candidate is so far ahead of the oldest Tory MP in the house that he will be collecting his pension in a couple of weeks. The whole of the South Coast is going to turn red. Joy of Joys! To make matters even better, interest rates are holding while inflation has fallen to 2%. Most of my investments are making 3 x that rate and will do for another year. It’s been a long time coming.

We live in an EU microcosm in our road. Lots of lovely expats from Europe. Have you noticed how people who come from abroad to live here are pejoratively referred to as immigrants whereas Brits who go to live abroad are fluffily called expats. Well our lovely German/Australian expat, Dee, went back to Munchen, Germany for her Dad’s 96th birthday and brought us back some European chocolates. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to eat them but my Manager will scoff the lot in very short time.

I was talking to Dee about the election. I have some great chat-up lines. It turns out that, although she’s been in UK for more than 20 years, married a Brit, had a child, lectured English in a UK college, paid UK taxes all that time, she is not allowed to vote in the UK election. She can pay taxes to the state but has no say in how they are spent. When Labour are swept to power and start to widen the franchise to allow 16 year olds to vote, I am going to push them to allow people like Dee a vote as well. It is disgraceful that she hasn’t got it now unlike all those who have left years ago to live in Spain and can have a postal vote without argument.

Friday, 21st June, 2024

Lovely, warm night with a beautiful, full moon. Were you watching, Dear Reader? The Summer Solstice and June’s Strawberry Moon coincided for the first time in nearly 70 years. Pity the England team didn’t take the hint.

These are lovely times. Very warm – we reached 25C again yesterday – and a time for sleeping on the bed not in it. First thing I do in the morning when I come down to Breakfast – well chef is juicing my oranges, making my tea and making sure the day starts correctly – the first thing I do is go out into the garden and check all is well.

We have a couple of beautiful blackbirds who have been serenading us from the rooftops each evening searching feverishly through the newly watered soil in our raised beds for worms.

Thirteen years ago, we were getting to grips with Mediterranean gardening in the intense sunshine of a Greek Summer. Our Lemon Trees were fruiting well and we produced Courgettes, Peppers and Potatoes. We even had a crop of Green Beans.

Nipped down to the beach this morning as we had a parcel to return nearby. It was hot, sunny and almost deserted. You always get one cluttering it up, don’t you.

Saturday, 22nd June, 2024

Do I seem weather obsessed to you, Dear Reader? Maybe I am. Gardeners definitely are. Our local Pick Your Own farm which is 2 mins away has a big banner up on its website saying most crops are delayed because of the wet Spring.

It certainly was. I can see from previous Blog records how far behind some plants are this year. Having said that, the weather really organised itself well this week. Yesterday was gorgeously hot and sunny. Over night, we had really sustained rain and, this morning, it is hot and sunny again. Couldn’t ask for more.

For the last few years in Greece, we experienced lots of heatwaves. The hottest we personally experienced coincided with a trip to Athens. We had travelled from our island home to the city to search and buy tiles for the outside of our house. I can see us even now arriving in Piraeus from the ferry and the temperature showing 41.6C/107F. If you’ve never felt that heat, I can tell you that it’s almost impossible to walk and, the older you get, the more dangerous it is.

A decade ago I was arguing that Greece was so totally reliant on Tourism that it was dangerous in a world of Climate Change. Greece doesn’t sell sophistication but simplicity. Greece doesn’t sell Haute Cuisine but simple, Mediterranean cooking. Greece doesn’t even sell ease of travel and access and but retreat and isolation from the busy world. What Greece does sell is guaranteed sunshine and warm, dry weather in the Summer months … unlike UK and many other parts of Northern Europe.

The European Commission paper on the Consequences of Climate Change points out exactly this and suggests Greece, Spain, Portugal, South of France will have to shift their offerings to Winter to survive. If they do, it will be old people like me who they will be catering for. I think they will have to change their economic model altogether.

Sunday, 9th June, 2024

On this glorious day, we will be spending it putting the house & garden to bed ready for going away – setting up automatic routines such as watering, lighting, monitoring, etc.. My Under-Gardener has been set on trimming the hedge before completing the packing. We don’t fly until tomorrow evening but like to get everything done beforehand.

The news about Dr. Michael Moseley is not good as rather expected. His body has been found not far from the beach where he set off to walk back to his house on the Dodecanese island of Symi. The fragility of life is so shocking. Delaying things, denying things, ignoring things in the brevity that is a life is utterly foolish. Act while you can. Don’t be afraid of breaking eggs. Paradise is full of omelettes.

Looking forward to our return to The Electra Palace Hotel, Thessaloniki. We are off tomorrow and that is a few weeks later than last year which explains why the temperatures are so much hotter. We have a nice suite overlooking the Platea Aristotelous and the Thermaikos Gulf with its wonderful sunsets. The hotel has an indoor and an outdoor pool as well as a Gym. What more could one need?

Monday, 10th June, 2024

Lovely day as the world was freshened up by a good rainfall over night. Blue sky now although not as warm as I’d expect June to be. Before we prepare to leave, we have a handyman firm coming first thing to quote us for a list of about 10 jobs needed for smartening up. The rain has meant that I don’t need to water before leaving so just getting travelling things together is all we have to do.

My Butler has a travel bag specifically designated to be stored in a cupboard in which essential items are kept – Passports, Euros, Plug Adaptors, etc. plus a tick-off list of jobs that must be completed before we drive off to the airport. It is a quick and reassuring process.

I wanted to tell you something that happened to me yesterday, Dear Reader. I was in the Gym, watching a fairly pappy film on Amazon Prime called: I’ll Find You. It is set in 1930s Poland where Jews are starting to feel the persecution of the Right Wing populace. Hitler is already a thing and the world is allowing the forward creep of Naziism. You might even see some parallels with current times. It has been distracting me while I exercise. Nothing more … until something happened.

Forgive me if I have written some of this before but it is relevant. In 1967, my Grandfather gave me a wind-up gramophone with a pack of steel needles and a collection of 78 vinyl records which featured Operatic Arias and included Handel’s Largo which, when I played it, hit me like a dagger to the heart. I was 16 years old, going to discos, meeting girls and listening to the Moody Blues: Go Now on Pirate Radio. Suddenly, I realised there was an art form out there I knew nothing about – Classical Music, Opera. I determined that I should learn about it although that was put on hold while I was away at College.

In the mid-1970s, rudderless and lost, I was fervently going for self education. I did a Literature Degree in the evenings while I taught during the day. I did a Masters Research Degree after that. At the same time, I was buying Art books to learn about the History of Art. I was buying cassettes of Classical Music and playing them on a battery-powered cassette player during the Power Strikes. I bought a monthly Discovering Opera magazine that introduced me to a number of Operas and composers/librettists accompanied by an exemplary cassette each month. I was shutting out the real world while cramming my head with learning of the cultural world.

Of course, we all have to let the real world in eventually but, by then, I was well on the way to a new understanding of the culture I had missed. My wife bought me a copy of Handel’s Largo which you will already know, Dear Reader, is the opening Aria of Handel’s opera, Xerxes. I played it constantly on a loop, driving everyone else mad.

Yesterday, I was in the Gym watching this nondescript film set in 1938 Poland and a young lad started to sing. He was pitch perfect and his song was … Handel’s Largo. I felt the emotions of more than 50 years well up in my chest. Fortunately, I was on the exercise bike as I found myself sobbing uncontrollably. I could do nothing as the waves of the 1960s and 1970s crashed over me. It is astonishing that music can do this but also wonderful in its power and evocativeness.

It has left me with a deep sadness. Ridiculous, I know, but I am travelling to Gatwick with a burden of unresolved sadness deep inside. This is no way to go on a trip. Get a grip!

Tuesday, 11th June, 2024

Travelling in the early hours has real benefits but it had a surprisingly chilly downside this morning. Could not believe Gatwick carpark at midnight. It felt freezing – actually 7C/45F – but in June?

The airport was very quiet and we went through Security and passport control in less than three minutes. Unfortunately, the Executive Lounge – Flight Lounge – wasn’t as clever and we have noted the importance of booking a better one earlier next time.

When we flew to Greece from Manchester for the first time in 1980, the flight time was 4.5 hrs.. Today, the flight time from London to Thessaloniki was just 3.0 hrs.. We flew on time and arrived on time. Off the plane in minutes and out to a taxi. Check-in time at our hotel is 3.00 pm.. We arrived at 11.30 am and were shown straight to our Suite on the top floor overlooking the bay.

House wine and chocolates on the table. TV welcome in the Lounge and the Bedroom. We showered, changed and went down to the Executive Lounge which caters for Suite holders. Everything is ‘free’ whenever you want. We asked for Club Sandwiches, Smoked Salmon Bagels, Greek Salad plus red and white wine. It was delightful.

Out on the Balcony of our Suite, the temperature had hit 37C/99F and the view was wonderful. We watched Politics Live on BBC2 as we would at home, discussed the Tories disastrous position then opened a local bottle of Kretikos white wine and …. the rest is history and oblivion.

Health warnings are being put out tonight about the effect of the extreme temperatures on health and well being. We are experienced in these things but, as a liitle old lady told me a few months ago, she struggled with temperatures as she got older. Mind you, she also dyed her grey hair blonde so everyone is different. I will easily complete my exercise routine today but we will walk out to restaurants this evening and then catch up on some sleep before embracing a new day tomorrow.

Wednesday, 12th June, 2024

Having not slept for two days, didn’t wake up until 7.00 am (5.00 am UK) this morning. My phone says the temperature outside is only 28C/82F. It looks delicious. Strangely, overnight they have begun to install a sandpit/beach in the centre of Aristotle Square.

After a shower and a cup of tea, we’ve got the normal, hotel dilemma. We never eat Breakfast at home. In a hotel, it feels like an illicit treat and something you’ve paid for and shouldn’t waste. Your body says, You don’t need it. Your head says, You’re on holiday and you’ve paid for it. Go for it. The head almost always wins. It will today. The buffet breakfast is wonderful here and covers everything you could expect and a lot more.

Breakfast finished and now, drinking coffee on the balcony and regretting eating breakfast. Have to go out for a long walk to work off …. breakfast. With the temperature already at 30C by 9.30 am and forecast to be around 37C/99F for most of the day, we are going to have to be careful. With my new hat on, we are going to explore the restaurant district for Supper tonight but I was rather enchanted by last night’s venue. Lovely people!

Today is the annual Reunion of the men who were in the pioneering year of my all-girls training college. It will be held in Leeds in a chilly 15C/59F. I’m sure the camaraderie will be warmer. I received a Whatsapp in the middle of the night here from my old friend, JohnR to say he would convey my best wishes to the merry band. My friend, Kevin, will video-conference me between Leeds – Thessaloniki so that I can participate at a distance. There is no substitute for hugging people but it is the next, best thing.

To men of a certain age …. lets say, in their 70s – Françoise Hardy, French pop singer and fashion muse, was the previous generation’s Bridget Bardot. I must admit, she didn’t really do it for me although her voice was rather seductive but she did for many young men. Anyway, it is a sign of the times that it is reported this morning she has died at the age of 80 having been diagnosed with Lymphatic Cancer 10 years ago. 80!

Thursday, 13th June, 2024

We are 2 hours ahead of UK time here and, although our phones and watches change immediately, it always takes a few days to adjust the body clock. The temperature over night didn’t fall below 27C/81F and we were out in the Square eating ice cream at 1.am. I set my phone radio to come on at 6.00 am (Greek Time) but we stayed in bed until 7.00 this morning. We are forecast to be a little cooler today peaking at just 35C/95F.

Back in Brighton, yesterday, the scorching Summer just went on. It is such a difficult time for UK holiday resorts in particular where suddenly everywhere looks like Wales and UK residents generally have trouble in raising their soggy spirits. It is incredible this year and not even that warm. This time last year we were in baking hot sunshine in Sussex. Apparently, the Met.Office are blaming it on the Gulf Stream.

Yesterday, I missed the Reunion of the small, male cohort from my year at Training College. Actually, there were only about 6 originals present and the numbers were padded out by the year immediately after us. It is testament to our time that so many have already died. A number are too ill and/or incapacitated to travel so that an already small band of brothers is rapidly disappearing rather like the D-Day members in France recently.

My friend, Kevin, was there and kindly kept me up to speed. I have to say, the photos always make it look old and staid which isn’t too inviting.

Yesterday, I reported that the centre of classical Aristotle Square was being turned into a sandpit/beach. Wrong. Today we’ve learned that the installation is actually a Beach Volley Ball Court for an important tournament at the weekend. We can watch from our balcony. Now you wish you’d come don’t you, Dear Reader?

We are really enjoying this hotel. The staff are wonderful and can’t do enough for us. We had Room Service last night while we watched the Leaders Interview and the food was wonderful. Angus Beef Burgers with a Caesar Salad and a bottle of House Red was served up for us in our Suite as we watched the debate and the quality was wonderful.

Friday, 14th June, 2024

Yesterday was incredibly humid and sticky. It made walking hard work and drinking essential. Unfortunately, it ought not be alcoholic. I always tend to forget that. I am drinking too much I know and I’m going to have to have a spell of abstinence …. when I get home.

We have done lots of lovely things here already but the highlight was a new restaurant for Supper. We did walk for a couple of very draining hours yesterday and it was then that we found a new street full of restaurants. The menus are posted outside and you can soon tell from them how progressive they are.

Having spent more than 40 years eating out in Greece, there are very few surprises, very few ‘new’ dishes we haven’t tried and cooked ourselves. Last night we had the most wonderful starter of Μπάλες μάραθου/Fennel Burgers with a mustard & yoghurt dip.

Incredibly cheap to eat out here. Last night we ordered two starters, two main courses of Lamb Shank, a half litre of House Red and a half litre of House White. We were absolutely stuffed and the restaurant sent over ice cream & biscuits and glasses of Limoncello (Lemon Liqueur) and the bill was just €48.00/£40.00. Even so, it was quite hard to walk home.

This morning the Beach Volleyball Tournament in Aristotelous Square beneath our balcony is under way. Girls in minute bikinis are entertaining the early spectators. My wife has decided that she urgently needs to go shopping.

Actually, we rapidly walked past sports girls in thongs and on to the Cultural Centre – the old Port where warehouses that once stored tobacco, corn, etc., now house a Digital Dali Exhibition, A History of Greek Fashion Exhibition and an Exhibition of Female Photography.

This is Greece. It is all fairly basic … but they are trying and you have to give them credit.

Saturday, 15th June, 2024

A little cooler this morning – just 26C/79F – so we had breakfast on the terrace. It is much more comfortable for the old people now the heatwave has moderated.

Just checked the cameras at home in Sussex and … it’s raining. At least the plants will be happy. Going out for a walk down the coastal path this morning. Before that, I have to accompany my wife to the Supermarket for some sun tan lotion.

Just a few 100 metres from the hotel is a really well stock if small supermarket but before that, we come across this:

It is still a feature of Greek cities like Athens and Thessaloniki to find poor people begging to get by. This old lady is a widow and probably survives on the bare minimum of government support. It is testament to how common this is that few even notice her as she pretends to sleep at the road crossing where people naturally congregate.

We went out for a 2hr return walk down the coast road just as the temperature reached 32C/90F. I was saturated by the time we got back and, as we re-entered the hotel for a shower and change, one of my Yorkshire friend was contacting me to exercise caution. They had been reading a national newspaper report about tourist fatalities during the heatwave. I must admit, I would never consider myself a tourist in Greece nowadays and we generally know how far we can push it. Anyway, there are so many sportsmen dying in their late 50s and early 60s at the moment that I feel incredibly lucky to have got this far.

Sunday, 2nd June, 2024

Glorious morning as we advance into June. Hot and sunny with cloudless, blue skies. Nice preparation for our Greek trip. The garden really looks lovely and healthy and under control.

Didn’t sleep very well last night. Put the radio on at 5.00 am to hear reports about D-Day which is celebrated on Thursday. For some reason, I found myself thinking about my Dad, Eric Richard Sanders, who died in 1965 when I was just 14. I have to admit, I didn’t really know him well and have few, personal memories of him. (*) His sudden death at the age of 49 sticks in my memory with great clarity and small vignettes approach me but it is always a bit of a shock that I should not know a man who I lived with for my first 14 years.

I suppose there are two explanations of this. Firstly, Dad had been brought up in quite a remote and rather austere home without his mother who was ‘sectioned’ after childbirth with what we might now see as extreme post-natal depression. She never came out of the Pastures Mental Asylum and died there aged 62. For a long time, Dad would go and visit her each week … and then each month. It meant that he didn’t really develop a tactile nature and I don’t remember him ever hugging me. He was a private man who didn’t talk to the children much. Quite Victorian in that sense like the upbringing he had come from.

Dad went to Burton Grammar School where I later attended. Although he left in 1931, there were a couple of teachers still there who taught him. I had big boots to fill.

He was an excellent leader and rugby player. He was remembered as a man’s man. His grandfather – my Great Grandfather – had started a Joinery business in our village. I think they made coffins at one point. It was eventually established as Sanders & Son, Builders. Dad was trained and expected to go in to the business and eventually take it over. I was also expected to follow him and was sent to do ‘O’ Level Civil Engineering at Night School. I hated it and would have hated even more going into the Building Management business so it was fortunate that I was too young when he died.

Before that, of course, World War Two intervened. Dad was a natural to go into the Royal Engineers which he did soon becoming a Captain and eventually leaving as an Acting Major. He was in the desert in Palestine building bridges and supervising men to do construction. He always told us that he lost a lot of his hair because of the intense heat out there. He told stories about cooking eggs & bacon on screaming hot Jeep bonnets and he brought home a love of Camp Coffee which my Mother hated.

He came home to the family business and to marry. I’m not sure quite when but he came home from war in 1945 and my eldest sister, Ruth, was born in 1947. Dad’s wife – Ruth’s Mum – died in childbirth so his life was once more in turmoil. Fortunately (for me), my Mum had moved down from London to take up an Art teaching post in Burton Girls High School and moved to live in my village. She met newly available Dad and they were married in 1949. I came along in 1951.

He had Architect, Estimator and Civil Engineering training and, as Grandad aged, Dad increasingly took over the Business. He had about 30 or so men working for him with separate departments – Joiners, Painters, Plumbers, Bricklayers (funny but I don’t remember electricians) and, of course, general labourers. He seemed very good at leading teams of men.

The business did fairly well but I know he found it stressful. He grew it from small scale local work to building streets of houses. My Mother was constantly urging him on to take bigger projects which he thought were riskier. In his mid 40s, that stress caught up with him. He developed a duodenal ulcer which gave him considerable pain but which nowadays would easily be sorted out. And then, when he was 48, he started to suffer Angina. Eventually, he was taken into hospital where I went to see him. It was an agonising meeting. We had barely talked at home and found conversation in a hospital room almost impossible. I was up for trials to play Rugby for Staffordshire. I wanted him to watch me. It would have been the first time he had ever watched me.

He dismissed Bob & I because it was obvious how excruciating the conversation was and he was putting us out of our misery. The next night, Mum was called urgently to the hospital and he had had a heart attack and gone. I can remember the evening as clearly as if it was yesterday. In the current day, he would have been fitted with a stent, prescribed statins and lived another 40 years … but that was then and we will have similar regrets about cancer treatment advances when I’m gone.

(*) I caveat everything I record here with my incomplete memory. There may be those who will challenge the facts and I welcome them to correct me. Memory can play strange tricks on old minds.

It’s been a glorious day here, Dear Reader. Pity you couldn’t make it. You’ve missed a treat. However, we’ve got no rain forecast for at least a week now so there are still plenty of chances before we fly to Greece.

Monday, 3rd June, 2024

Lovely days just go on. Hot and humid today. The next week is projected to deliver absolutely no rain so watering will be exercising me. The past few days have been glorious in the garden. Met Office figures released today show the UK had its warmest May and warmest Spring since records dating back to 1884 began.

We are going to Thessaloniki soon so I am monitoring the weather. It’s looking great. My sort of weather. Very hot and sunny is perfect for me. You will hear the old and wrinkly, blue-rinse brigade complaining about it being too cold in Winter and too hot in Summer but I just love hot, hot, hotter. 34C/93F is absolutely perfect.

We’ve just booked our maintenance men to come and do some property repairs after we come back from holiday. In this week in 2011, my maintenance woman was hard at work repainting our Greek property. Construction work, painting, repointing, dry stone walling, plastering, etc. are part of her passion – anything to keep her properties ‘pristine’. I am quite happy to let her indulge her passions.

Tuesday, 4th June, 2024

Very warm and humid but overcast. From the one of the wettest Springs for 40 years, West Sussex is forecast to almost be a desert for the month of June. Not great news for gardeners.

Talking about gardeners and particularly those down here on the South Coast, the news has recently featured the discovery of 3 queen Asian Hornets which survived the Winter down here. They have come across the Channel for some years in the Summer but thought extinguished by Winter temperatures. Last Winter, we hardly used the central heating at all and the Hornets survived to breed and increase. Beautiful though they are, they are predators of our own Honey Bees which are essential to pollination.

Basic Economics teaches us that Currencies are heavily influenced by interest rates. Interest rates are difficult things for those who need to borrow money – mortgages, loans, etc. – but can be very positive for those who want to invest money – Savings Rates, Bonds, Currencies, etc.. It is nice to be on the positive side for a change. Savings rates and Bond rates are rewarding me now and interests rate diversity will help my position on Currency Exchange for a change.

The European Central Bank are predicted to cut interest rates on Thursday. This will make the EU a less attractive place to invest money and push down the value of the Euro. Pound-Euro exchange rate will strengthen in favour of the Pound Sterling. Time to buy a few thousand euros for future use.

The sun is out. The temperature is reaching 22C/70F. I am going out to water and feed all the front lawns and flower beds. What are you going to do, Dear Reader?

Wednesday, 5th June, 2024

Lovely day … to go to Lidl. I go there to buy Almond Milk. Theirs is the nicest and the cheapest. At least I managed to buy a couple of cases of it which will get me through the month.

Lidl is next to the beach so we carried on to the fishing jetty and walked in the sunshine. Looks quiet here but, as we left, hoards of school kids were arriving in noisy crocodiles for their post-SATs outing. It was very high tide and the beach was punctuated with warning signs of Dangerous Tides.

Suitcases have to be prepared. We have more suitcases than two people could ever want. I’m not sure why but my Valet just likes buying suitcases. Once again, we are not putting luggage in the hold. I love not having to wait anxiously around a luggage carousel in the airport. I have bought airline seats that include a large and a standard carry-on bag each which is plenty for us in the hot weather.

Just as the Valet is organising clothes to be packed for going away, I am preparing the vital communications apparatus for travel – smartphones, iPads, Laptop, Kindle, watches. All need chargers, VPN software to allow us to access Bank Accounts, UK TV: BBC, ITV, Sky, Netflix to keep in touch with the Election and download newspapers and to pick up a film. The Virtual Private Network I recommend which allows me to appear as if I am in London while I am sitting in Northern Greece is ExpressVPN. It works brilliantly and keeps everything secure.

Thursday, 6th June, 2024

Lovely, warm morning. On TV News, D-Day celebrations are running in the background. I’m not sure why but even as a Historian whose birth was in the immediate wake of World War Two, I find it difficult to acknowledge. I really don’t know why and feel a sense of shame in that difficulty. This morning it took the strains of Elgar’s Enigma Variations: Nimrod to catch my emotions and bring tears to my eyes. How powerful is music!

I’m having coffee with royalty this morning …. well, vicariously. Our neighbours were invited to Highgrove this week and brought back this present for us. Well, it is organic.

I’m going to mount the bag (I might have to rephrase that.) in the window with our Vote Labour poster.

How do you suit hats, Dear Reader? Do you wear them well? I have to admit that they don’t look good on me. What does? The temperatures forecast for Thessaloniki when I am there are 35C – 32C / 95F – 90F every day. It is not the hottest I have known but it will be HOT. I need a hat. They don’t suit me but needs must. My Dresser has ordered this hat from M&S. That’s OK.

The world is full of reunions today. D-Day is front and centre this morning but I will miss the College reunion of those 20+ young men who pioneered our College. We felt like a ‘Band’ of Brothers because of our minority inside a majority of girls. It is on Wednesday when I will be away. My friends will Video-Call me from the reunion to kindly include me. I will raise a glass of Retsina to them from a place in the sun. This is going to be a year of reunions.

Friday, 7th June, 2024

Gorgeous, gorgeous day. Blue sky; hot sun. Not quite Greek yet but lovely all the same. Greece is in the news at the moment because a TV doctor has gone missing on Symi Island which is part of the Dodecanese group.

Around 30 years ago, we rented a house up in the Hora behind a church. The island was interesting although very steep and without many cars to rent. The big surprise was that at 6.00 am every morning, the church bells were rung and not quietly. I was definitely up early to embrace the day on that trip.

Symi is particularly known for the 384 huge stone steps up to the Hora/ Chorio. They are wide steps to accommodate donkeys. For a donkey like me, it was hard work. It is known as the Kali Strata which literally means Good Way but, when you’ve climbed it every day for weeks, it doesn’t feel so good. I had to take my Bag-Carrier with me. This photo has been on the wall of every house ever since.

Had a phone call from my Oncologist yesterday afternoon. I was on the treadmill and out of breath when he called. I wasn’t expecting it. I had a face-to-face appointment today but not now. The news was good … I think. The blood test showed my PSA to be ‘normal’ and my testosterone to be that of a 25 year old. I will be tested again in 3 months and given a full MRI scan to rule out any chance that the cancer has migrated. I think I am happy with that.

Saturday, 8th June, 2024

Very warm with cloud and sun. All our neighbours are away. One side have gone to Germany for a Father’s 97th birthday. At the back, they’ve been in Spain since October. The other side has just come back from Dubai on a conference week. Across the road, they are just preparing to go to Dubai on a family holiday. We are still here. Custodians of the road … but not for long. We fly to Thessaloniki in a few days so I am trying to make sure the garden survives without me. I’ve mowed the street lawns and today I’m going to weed & feed them. On Sunday, I’ve decided to forgo a trip to church and I will feed and water all the plants. So a busy few days prior to going away.

I don’t want you to have nightmares but this image is the face of the Best Man (Orwellian Double Speak) at my wedding almost 46 years ago. I have renamed him Kapability Kevin because, in old age, he tells me that he has discovered gardening. You will know the famous, 18th century garden designer Capability Brown.

Today it is Orwell & Kafka day across BBC Radio 4. It is 75 years ago that George Orwell published the dystopian novel, 1984. Today, Radio 4 is dominated by readings and analysis of the novel. I know I am odd but I find it gripping.

In the novel, Winston Smith is living in a controlled State under the surveillance of the Thought Police where the political order so dominates everyday life that independent thought is a crime, love is forbidden, and language seems to say the opposite of what one has normally come to expect. Under this oppression, Winston tries to rebel by putting down his private thoughts in a Diary. Today, it would be a Blog if he could keep it private. In it he tries to assert words which the State has bent the reality of.

In his diary, he records his first thought: Down with Big Brother! To compound such a heinous thoughtcrime, he begins a liaison with a pretty young woman, a member of the Anti-Sex League, named Julia. He has sex with her but, of course, Julia is a rebel from the waist down only and betrays him (It was ever thus!) to The Thought Police.

At this point, the thinking reader examines themself and their own world in terms of Winston Smith and the Totalitarian State of 1984. Why do I write a Blog? Why do I vehemently oppose the Right Wing who long for a ‘strong leader’ to control the State? Have I been betrayed? Only you, Dear Reader, can answer those questions. You are on the outside looking in to my Life.

Sunday, 26th May, 2024

Lovely day of sunshine and high, fleecy, white clouds. Having setup our new iPads, we are taking one of the old iPads up to Surrey for P who has smashed the screen of hers. I’m trading one in for around £300.00 and we are forgoing the £300.00 we could get for the second one by giving it to P.

The drive up on a Bank Holiday weekend could have been a nightmare but it proved remarkably easy. It is a beautiful route through trees and wild flowers, through farm land and natural vegetation.

P’s original iPad had a cracked screen which was dangerous to use but was going to cost £200.00 to fix. Better to help out so that’s what we did today. It took about half an hour to copy old to new and wipe old clean. That went in the bin and the new one was tried out immediately.

Just to test the new iPad was identical to the original, we walked P through her normal routines. She is 86 and partially sighted so her determination to keep up with technology is admirable. I know lots of old, wrinklies who are scared of smart phones never mind iPads. She likes to Facetime/Video Link her daughter in Florida each day so I needed to check that it worked.

Florida is 5 hrs behind us but it was 11.30 am in UK so she tried it and it worked. A bleary-eyed, half asleep face appeared in the darkness of her bedroom to confirm it had worked although, I have to say, she did sound a bit grumpy. I don’t know why.

At least I know P can do the things she wants to on a good quality machine. It may well become increasingly a lifeline to the real world as she becomes tied to her home by frailty and other conditions. At least C is back to good health and happy with the world.

Of course, yesterday afternoon was lit up by Man. Utd. winning the F.A. Cup and destroying their Manchester rivals. Today it’s all about Leeds Utd.’s attempt to bounce back into the Premier League.

Monday, 27th May, 2024

Nice day but it is a Bank Holiday. Hate Bank Holidays. Well, there are no Banks anymore and it just means more people are milling around instead of being imprisoned in schools and places of work, leaving the world to the young at heart like me. I’m going to argue for Bank Holidays to move on line like the banks.

I wonder if I’m too late for someone to put that in their manifesto. After all, if you can work out something as mad as the Tories Teenage Dads’ Army on the back of a fag packet in an afternoon, you could definitely abolish Bank Holidays. Since the election was called in the rain on Thursday and Sunak went into Wales not knowing they had been knocked out of the football championship and was photographed in front of an Exit sign and then went on to Northern Ireland to be photographed in front of the Titanic Museum.

The Tory MPs must have that sinking feeling. Certainly the electorate have. Polling this weekend puts Labour on 44% and Tories on 23%. If we can just get the Reform racists into full stride and the perfect storm will be on. With a few more seats picked up in Scotland, we will be home and dry. (What does that mean?)

What do you think about electric cars, Dear Reader? Mine is hybrid and I’m very happy with it. I can drive 500 + miles a day across Europe and not worry. The thing is that the majority of my journeys in Retirement are under 20 miles. It would be useful to have a plug-in electric to do those journeys as an additional facility. What do you think about a cheap and cheerful, bug-eyed all electric in garish yellow so they can see us coming?

I want to introduce to one of my current favourites in the garden – a Houttuynia cordata ‘Chameleon’.

It is incredibly easy to grow – well at least down here it is. It is wonderfully colourful and vigorous and keeps going from the last frost until the first frost – sort of March to November. It grows and thickens out rapidly, can be dug up and split with individual pieces potted on to make as many ‘free’ plants as you like. And it looks spectacular in the sunshine. Its flowers are negligible but the leaves really compensate.

Tuesday, 28th May, 2024

Rain over night. Dry and warm now. A morning of newspapers and political speeches … and tidying the Office. Good speech from Rachael Reeves, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor and former Bank of England executive. She spoke at the Rolls Royce establishment in Derby – just a stone’s throw from where I was born.

Ironically, a property was featured in The Times yesterday in my home village of Repton. It is a beautiful house Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1907 and sits in just under 5 acres. The price is a mere £3.5 million which seems quite modest now.

In the 1970s, I used to almost live in the Manchester Business School on Oxford Road. It seemed quite a go-ahead place springing out of shabby surroundings. This morning, I read in the M.E.N. that it was the centre of police activity as students were barricading the exam centre at Manchester University in pro-Palestinian protests.

It is good to see Gen.Z getting involved in political campaigning again. They have been far too quiet for too long.

Ironically, Delta Polling issued a recent piece of research on changing views about rejoining the European Union. Unsurprisingly, every age group other than mine would vote overwhelmingly to Rejoin Europe and it is embarrassing that the wrinklies can’t see it. It does tie in with the Labour Party’s desire to expand the franchise to include 16 years olds. This is the way we will get , modern and more relevant policies introduced.

We Boomers have to resist this downward drift of aging as long as possible and keep our eyes on the Future. I’m hoping that I will be well into my 80s before any thought of the Tories return will be even mooted.

Wednesday, 29th May, 2024

Lovely, warm and sunny morning. My wife is preparing everything for a trip abroad … and that means she is preparing me. New clothes. Haircut. Travel documents, Euros …. oh, god!! All I’m interested in is the General Election at the moment. Well, on reflection, not all I’m interested in but …

The panicking Tories suddenly try to buy the grey/blue-rinse vote with a Triple Lock ‘Plus’ wheeze that will save each pensioner literally 28p per week and then near as dammit propose to reintroduce conscription which is universally derided and the next day a major YouGove Poll shows the gap actually widening when all experience teaches us that polls tighten over the campaign. You couldn’t write it better.

Down to the beach this morning, forgetting it was Half Term. Quite a lot of Kids but managed to avoid most of them. Lovely and warm on the seaside with no wind and plenty of sunshine. The smell of the ozone is wonderful.

There has been some talk of a staycation revival but it won’t persuade me. I am going to Europe at the very least. Two trips to Greece – June and August – plus a drive through France and Italy in July. Who knows where we will go afterwards. We live near a coastal town and we recognise it is less dynamic than it was. Even Brighton can look fairly shabby. I drive past groups of tourists and think, Could you not find somewhere better?

There have been quite a few newspaper articles recently highlighting the dilapidation of North Wales coastal towns – places where I was taken on holiday. Rhyl, Prestatyn and Llandudno have been particularly highlighted. Rhyl was called ‘Manchester-on-Sea’ and described as “one of the most disgusting seaside towns on Earth.” As a child, I was taken to Colwyn Bay and Abergele. I went once to Anglesey and even that is now more seriously threatened than ever with a nuclear power station. Not my choice of relaxing sunshine spot particularly as it rains so much.

Thursday, 30th May, 2024

Up at 5.00 am. Why? Because my wife couldn’t sleep, obviously. It was warm and grey. By 5.30 am, she was back in bed sleeping and I was wide awake and drinking coffee. Well, I don’t need a lot of sleep anyway. Going out for blood tests this morning prior to meeting the oncologist next week. It is a PSA and Testosterone test to reveal how successful my radiotherapy has been. A little nervous about it but there is nothing I can do. The testosterone is working but who knows about the prostate?

Can you remember what you were doing 15 years ago, Dear Reader? Were you busy? Happier or Sadder? Richer or Poorer? How much has gone under the bridge in the last 15 years? In this week, 15 years ago, we were just about to put our stop-gap property that we had bought to free up capital to fund our Greek house build on the market with the intention of moving South. When I consider how much has happened since then it is quite amazing and suggests that there is so much more to come before our 90s.

It will be 40 years ago this summer that we bought my favourite house set in an acre of garden which was itself set in a Conservation Area. Helme in Meltham was a delightful place to live and I could have happily stayed there forever but it is important to move on and to gain new experiences. We were there for 16 years and that is long enough to get stuck. Our Greek plans forced our hand and I look back without regret.

If you’d spent a few years doing this in your own designed home on a Greek island, Dear Reader, you wouldn’t regret it either. Everyone should have that experience in their timeline. It was a wonderful time which I would never change.

The houses are just markers in time. It is what came between that is important and I use these markers to help me reflect on my past. I spent time talking to an old College friend yesterday. We first met 55 years ago and haven’t had much contact in between. It is amazing how easy it is to bridge that gulf of time and place. We pick up fairly comfortably although our lives have diverged markedly. I suppose that’s why we became friends in the first place.

Friday, 31st May, 2024

Good Morning, Dear Reader …. and it is a good morning even though it is the last day of May 2024. My Dresser is currently obsessed with clothes and making sure everything is washed and ironed prior to packing for travel.

My obsession is gardening. Even though things are about two weeks late this year, Green Beans and Potatoes are flowering. Yes, I know, Hold the Front Page. To gardeners, these are signs of health and fruitfulness even though the flowers themselves are fairly insignificant.

Looked at closely and in isolation, these tiny flowers become beautiful in their own right. More importantly, they mean lots of produce to come soon. They also mean I can go away and not worry about them. They will just carry on carrying on happily in the sunshine.

It’s Friday so I will be cutting the neighbourhood lawns and, because it has been a strange season so far, I will be spraying them with Iron Sulphate (FeSO4) to give them a green-up boost. The plants we put in are coming into strong bloom and the area is looking cared for.

Some people wonder why I do it. You may wonder that, Dear Reader. Actually, it is an example of enlightened self interest. It does cost me a few hundred pounds a year but I enjoy exercising and being out in the sunshine with a sense of purpose. I like to drive into my street and think, Yes, this looks good. and I want my neighbours to do the same. They are grateful for my efforts and you never know when I might need their support. It is a win all round.

We’ve had great news this morning from our local newspaper – Sussex Express – which tells us that Labour are strong favourites to take both Worthing seats according to latest polling which also suggests Chichester will desert the Tories for the first time in 100 years. In our constituency, we will be sweeping away the Father of the House. Peter Bottomley is 79 and was first elected in 1975. Time for a change. Time for Dr Beccy Cooper.

Saturday, 1st June, 2024

JUNE!!! Time moves on. Hold it there. Summer has started. Lovely weather. Optimism. Grass thickening. Garden growing. Starting to flower well. Promising to ‘fruit’ well. Looking lovely. Demanding attention.

European trips about to begin. Movement, travel, challenge, foreign road signs, restaurants, cooking, people. Romance languages of Greece, France, Italy, Spain to listen to, to struggle with, to attempt to embrace.

Friends in the North to visit soon. Memories. Friendship. Grimy, stone buildings. Moorland space. Sheep. Rain & cold. Warm feelings. Rosy memories.

Sorry, Dear Reader. Don’t know what happened there. Suddenly fell into a stream of consciousness. Still, it’s good to do different things at times isn’t it. If you can’t do them in your 70s, when can you? My wife woke up this morning and said, We should be spending money. We should be travelling and spending money. I must admit, I thought we were but she thinks we are saving too much and not enjoying it enough. It’s going to take some effort to turn that super-tanker round in my mindset but I will think about it.

Don’t like to rain on your parade, introduce a note of realism into this euphoria of sunshine but there are less than three weeks until we start to go downhill. Two weeks on Thursday is the Summer Solstice, the Longest Day. From that point on, daylight gradually shortens, growing time is reduced, Winter draws on. We start to look for sunshine elsewhere in the world.

This morning, we are looking for problems. We have been in this house for 8 years. Even two, old codgers, would find it difficult to keep a new house looking ‘good as new’ over that period of normal living. We have always practised high level maintenance.

Pristine is the word my wife uses for how she wants her house so guess what happens. The house is kept pristine. This morning, we are doing a building check. Anything which is not pristine will be listed, recorded and addressed. Quite a bit of it will be dealt with by her – grubby finger-marks on the wall or door will be painted out, a peeling garage door step will be stripped, sanded and repainted but not by me. somethings will need outside help. We have an excellent multi-job, repair firm who we’ve used before.

Outside, some baseline repointing is needed after new patio flags have been laid and old ones pressure washed. My wife could do that but it would take her quite a while and who would cook my Supper? Some mastic grouting in one shower room needs replacing. A couple of soft-close kitchen cabinet hinges need replacing. Nothing is major but a list of these jobs aggregate to make less than pristine so have to be fixed.

An update for those who are as daft as me about politics and I’ve just been talking to my neighbour who says, They’re all the same as each other, John. I don’t normally beat women up but I made an exception this time. Labour will be different. There may be no money but they will give it to the more deserving. Hopefully, they will give your money to me. I am more deserving. The big prediction for my constituency which has been Tory for 100 years is Labour chance of winning = 70% / Tory chance of winning = 30%. I was looking at a red wall, Manchester constituency and in M24, Labour chance of winning = 66% / Tory chance of winning = 14% and Reform = 12% chance of winning. It’s all going the Left way.

Sunday, 19th May, 2024

Beautiful morning – warm and sunny. The garden looks and feels lovely …. which is more than can be said for me. My wife’s lifelong ambition – largely achieved – has been to humiliate me.

This morning she had another go. Now well into my 70s, as she regularly points out, this morning she showed me how much my hair is thinning on top and increasingly showing grey. In my defence, I haven’t had an easy year and my body has been under attack. My hair has reacted to that stress. That’s my defence. Anyway, if you look closely, she has a few flecks of grey in her hair now as well.

Off to France in a couple of days if you fancy joining us, Dear Reader. Be nice to get out and wave the passport about again. Driving through the tunnel is something we have done so many times over the past 30 years since it was opened. To think I was only 43 and had lots of hair when it started!

Yet another trip to the Plant Centre this morning. The final purchase of the Summer is Sweet Basil seedlings which we will pot up, grow on and turn into Pesto as well as use in salads. Should have grown it from seed myself but didn’t get round to it. Always magical that these little things grow into such huge plants.

Monday, 20th May, 2024

Gorgeous morning. Looking forward to France tomorrow. The philosopher, Kierkegaard, said:

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards …

I exemplify that observation. It is absolutely essential to understand and not deny one’s history even though we can only move forward in our lives. The trick is to integrate past, present and future so that we use our experience to progress. We cannot deny our past. We cannot airbrush it out not least because it lives indelibly inside us. My sister, Ruth, talks about not being interested in her past but you can bet she will celebrate her 77th birthday on Thursday just as she celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary and the birthdays of her children and grandchildren. These are signposts through her history and they are important calibrations of her lifetime.

The Blog helps me record and understand past, present and future. It is essentially me, my life in all its trivialities but it is informed by all the successes and tragedies that any 73 year old will have acquired and of all the people and places that have informed and intersected with my life.

Today, I had to go out and buy additional hosepiping so that I can now reach 200 meters as I water flowerbeds up and down my road. In my lifetime, we had a huge garden in my childhood home which Dad used to grow vegetables. When I married, I bought a house surrounded by an acre of garden in which I enjoyed growing vegetables. Clearly, I was using the experience of my childhood.

In our Greek home we had 4 acres of olive trees, fruit trees and vegetable growing areas. I loved the challenge of learning to grow things in that climate. We were taught to cultivate the shaded side of the house and create dust bowls which could be planted into and would hold the precious water rather than just let it evaporate in the intense sunshine.

Moving forward, it is time to look at the latest edition of the Apple iPads which were released last week. I have been dedicated to staying up to date, never becoming an old fogey and out of touch with the present future. I’ve had my iPad Pro for 5 years. We should not expect more than that of tablets or computers. It will cost me about £1500.00 and then I will have to buy a keyboard cover (£250.00) and a new iPad Air (£800.00) for Pauline. So, keeping up is expensive and yet £2,500.00 over 5 years is very reasonable.

Tuesday, 21st May, 2024

Up at 5.00 am on a warm and sunny morning. Out before 6.00 am and en route to the tunnel. Became increasingly overcast as we drove. The drive takes about 2 hours joining the M23, M25, M26, M20. At that time, it was all pretty quiet. The drive was relaxing and enjoyable. Listened to BBC R4 Today as usual. Before we knew it, we were there about 40 mins early.

The roads had been quiet and the Terminal was empty apart from a group of noisy school kids excitedly anticipating their trip day out.

We arrived in France about an hour earlier than expected. Off to Auchan and then Cité Europe where Pauline bought 3 pairs of shoes, some cooking pans and equipment and I bought £500.00 of wine to get me through June. We did a shop of things that are only done well en France: Saucisson, Fromages, Charcuterie, etc.. I bought pink Fizz for my friends and neighbours and we went outside to see the rain had begun to fall. It may have been wet but it was deliciously warm.

Drive back to the Tunnel Terminal. Our return time was confirmed and we sat in the car listening to political podcasts. Amazing how time flies when you’re occupied.

We were soon down to customs and Check-in in the rain. So few people doing the crossing. Not like full season. They check nothing nowadays. I was able to bring well over my allocation across without problem.

Home by 4.00 pm and I was restacking my wine racks while chef put together a lovely buffet supper of Confit Duck, Garlic Sausage, Cheese and biscuits plus salad. Going on a diet tomorrow. I’ve shared my wine with my friends. I always want to share my experiences with them too. Life is about sharing, isn’t it, Dear Reader?

Wednesday, 22nd May, 2024

Went to bed very tired last night. Probably more the wine tasting than the driving and the early start yesterday. Up at 7.00 am this morning to quite a grey start and it had obviously rained over night.

Racked my wine purchases. Each bottle costs about half the price it would be in the UK. It is better to buy quality wines under these circumstances. A £20.00 bottle of wine for £10.00 in France makes the journey well worth while. About 70 bottles each saving £10.00 per bottle is simple maths when you calculate the journey cost of around £150.00. Of course, I would have done it anyway just for the enjoyment and the quality food products we also bought like this delicious, white asparagus.

Driving back yesterday, the car provides me with lots of information like the speed limit and the speed I’m doing. I took this photo on my drive but, normally, the road speed sign will have been scanned and placed before me. My speed is set which is what (ACC) Adaptive Cruise Control means and whether I have Lane Keep Assist (LKAS) set, the miles I have to go, whether I’m driving on electric (EV) with the green line or petrol fuel.

So, I’m driving back on the M25 monitoring reasonably heavy traffic, all the information coming on three screens in the car and listening to a political podcast about the Tories chance of winning the upcoming election. And then the dreaded happened. A warning symbol popped up accompanied by a warning chime which meant a tyre or tyres’ pressure had fallen below the set rate.

Middle of the M25, rain starting to fall, 70mph with lots of spray from lorries in front was not a time I wanted to stop and check the tyres unless forced to. I monitored the balance of the car as I drove and it didn’t seem compromised so I completed the final 50 miles with this symbol dominating the display. Our tyres should be 35 psi – front and 32 psi – rear. This morning we checked the pressures and one tyre was just 0.5 psi down. In previous years we wouldn’t have even been aware of that for months. It dominated my mind throughout my drive back.

A calmer, more relaxed day today. PMQs to watch and the gripping dismantling of Paula Vennells, the former boss of the Post Office by a barrister in the Inquiry. I love it. Mind you, there are lots of weird things that I love. Still got to do my Gym routine. And now and at last ….a General Election on July 4th! WooHoo!!!

Thursday, 23rd May, 2024

Lovely, warm and sunny day. Good day for a birthday. Happy Birthday to my old sister, Ruth. Sunset Strip – 77 – today. We wish her a lovely day.

Up early to shop for garden products and to fill the car. Petrol has gone up again to 145.7 per litre or £6.63 per gallon. Can you imagine it? Inflation has generally come down but is predicted to rise again soon which is one reason why Sunak has called an early election. Things will definitely get worse as the year develops.

It was about the most inept presentation of a Prime Minister announcing a General Election that I have ever seen. He held all the cards. He could have presented from inside No 10. He could have presented outside this morning in the sunshine.

Instead, he chose to drown outside last night while being drowned out by protesters playing the Blair Election theme – Things Can Only Get Better. It’s going to be a fascinating 6 weeks. Got a Greek trip before that.

Thessaloniki is warming up. Walking in warm sunshine and hearing Greek voices, smelling Greek smells, being pampered by our hotel staff and eating Greek food – just bliss. Must contact my Northern friends and arrange a trip up there. Particularly, I must contact my friend in Royton who I haven’t spoken to for a while.

I wonder if this sort of thing affects you or is it just me, Dear Reader? I have no particular interest in competitive swimming in general or David Wilkie in particular but I remember him from the Olympics as a remarkably fit, young man. He died this week of cancer at the ripe old age of 70! Now 50 years ago, we would be thinking that he had lived a reasonable term but current expectations are that this is a life cut short. A man who has been super fit for much of his life is dead three years younger than me. As I say, it may only be me but I find such cases incredibly unsettling.

Friday, 24th May, 2024

Lovely, sunny morning. We are driving up to Surrey to see how P&C are. We have to be there in time to take them to a medical appointment for C. Yesterday I was horribly tired all day. Had to drag myself around and force myself to do things. I was so tired and had to beat myself up so hard that it made me emotional. It is something that has been happening to me since my cancer treatment.

I was so upset with myself yesterday that my wife did some research – something I’ve been avoiding. She found that it is quite normal for people who have undergone radiotherapy in general and men who have suffered prostate cancer in particular to suffer extreme fatigue during the treatment, increasing after the treatment and lasting up to a year before improving.

I hate the feeling of failure. It is my belligerent character which militates to fight it. I have reduced my exercise since the treatment. I still do my Gym routine but the 10 miles a day I was doing has ben reduced to 5 miles a day. Since the start of the year, I have only failed to achieve my target on an average of one day a month but it is still a big reduction. I was pleased to read that I am doing exactly what medics advise and forcing myself to continue exercising and walking in particular.

In Surrey, we are visiting P&C (aged 86 & 87) to take them to a doctor’s appointment. While they did, we visited a retirement development in the centre of West Byfleet. It is ideal for them – Independence with Community. Restaurants, shops, gymnasium and swimming pool all integrated. Easy access to trains to London plus buses and taxis anywhere they want to go. You can sell your house and then buy or rent an apartment. What’s not to like?

This afternoon, I ordered a new iPad Air and an iPad Pro from Apple UK. They tell us that they will be delivered ‘free’ by tomorrow afternoon. It won’t be ‘free’, of course. They have cost me £2447.00 but at least we will get new machines. We will next need to order new ones when we are 78, Dear Reader.

Saturday, 25th May, 2024

Glorious day which reached 22C/70F in the afternoon. I’m going to be doing I.T. and gardening. The new iPads are being delivered at Lunchtime – less than 24 hrs after they were ordered. Love it.

Now I’ve got to copy across everything from two, old machines to the two new ones. I then have to clean up the originals and return them to factory settings. Mine will then go off to Apple as a trade-in for about £300.00. The other will be taken up to Surrey to replace P’s broken iPad.

The warm sunshine will be replaced by rain over night both of which will be welcomed by the garden plants. The potatoes are doing really well and should be ready in July. The carrots and beetroot are looking fine and will be ready in the Autumn.

I took the risk of early planting with Green Beans and it is paying off. There is no chance of frost down here until November at the earliest so we can expect a good crop. I’ve got Basil seedlings in my cold frames and they will go out in mid-June. Looking forward to lots of sunshine to power them on. Just think, I will be harvesting all of this produce under a Labour Government …. a Labour Government. What Joy!!

Sunday, 12th May, 2024

When am I going to get rid of this bloody Covid? I know I am rather immuno-compromised since radiotherapy but it’s starting to get me down. For the 9th consecutive day, I have tested strongly positive for Covid whereas my wife, who is obviously a much more resilient character is now clear. I do still feel under the weather – rasping cough, runny nose, tired all the time with aching limbs. At least I’m forcing myself to complete my Gym routine each day and only missed two days at the start of the infection.

Went to bed at 9.30 pm last night. It is unheard of but I was feeling exhausted. I slept as well. The temperature didn’t fall below 17C/63F last night and I slept on top of the bedclothes with the window open. During the day, the garden has reached a lovely 26C/79F.

When we woke, Pauline had been in a dream about a Gite in the Dordogne where we stayed for a month one July. But which July? Quite astonishing how time fades away in the memory …. but not with a Blog. First thing after Breakfast I was able to pinpoint a month driving around France & Italy in July 2017.

In July 2018, we rented a Gite in Saint-Sauveur, a quaint village outside Bergerac. When we got there, we found the girl who owned it was from Warrington and had worked in Oldham for years.

The weather was glorious throughout our month’s stay, we got to travel around and visit lots of local markets, visited my cousin who had a Gite business not far away and do lots of walking. Happy times before Covid.

Today, in spite of being terribly ill, Dear Reader, I am being roped into cleaning the stone lintels of our windows which have become rather stained over the last 8 years. Having seen how the magic potion can so successfully clean the patio, my Housekeeper has decided to use it on stone lintels prior to cleaning all the white windows and doors. Unfortunately, I am the only one stupid enough to go up a ladder and the only one who can reached the difficult bits. I’m going to have that as my epitaph, Dear Reader: He was the only one able to reach the difficult bits! Could be worse, I suppose.

Monday, 13th May, 2024

Suddenly garden time has arrived … about a week later than last year. I maintain the public lawns and beds of our street. I try to keep everything lush, green and striped and then plant out bright, repeating colours in the flower beds. I grow plants from seed and then buy some from local Nurseries. My own sowings will need another couple of weeks before they go out.

Today, I’ve bought huge batches of Marigolds and Osteospurmums. They are brightly coloured, hardy and flower all Summer with the minimum of attention.

I have used these plants for years and only learnt today that they are from the same genus – Calendula. These warm, bright colours will echo each other along each side of our street and give it a ‘corporate’ look.

It is just a month until we fly to Thessaloniki but I am so pleased to avoid this cattle market of the past. Over the decades, the hot, sweaty nights we have queued in Greek airports to Check-in while trying to guess which Gates it will go from only to find them switched at the last minute. Easyjet contacted me today to say I could Check-in online. We have Speedy Boarding with 1 x large carry-on cabin bag + 1 x small carry-on cabin bag each which is plenty for us. We just go straight through Security and down to our Executive Lounge before boarding. The whole process is relaxing. Boarding Passes are printed out. Life is comparatively so straightforward these days.

No sooner had I written that than I turned to the first story on the Daily Telegraph where all my confidence was punctured immediately. I don’t think that will affect June but we are using them again in August. Let’s hope they have settled by then.

Tuesday, 14th May, 2024

I’m still testing positive for Covid after two weeks. All Kissing is still banned, you’ll be devastated to hear, Dear Reader. Had to cancel my dentist appointment tomorrow. So, there is an upside. My friend, Kevin, is completing his Starvation/Purge prior to another colonoscopy this afternoon in Leeds. He ate his last meal yesterday lunchtime and had to wake up at 6.00 am this morning to take his next enema. I phoned him at 5.55 am this morning to his surprise. He’s not a morning person. He definitely isn’t now! He’s a very, very empty person.

We had a bit of rain over night and everything is fresh, clean and sweet-smelling this morning in the warm air. It reminds me of that morning feeling everyday on the island in Greece – walking out onto the terrace with the rising sun, the warm enveloping air, the sounds of a donkey braying away across the valley and the cockerel calling out to corral its hareem and all the time the orchestra of cicadas builds in the olive trees to the heat at the peak of the day. But the evening sun going down across the sea reflects the glory of the day and moderates the baking heat ready to start all over again the next morning.

In the garden today we are planting out blocks of seed grown carrots. Just for fun, we have chosen a rainbow coloured variety. In the end, they’re just carrots but the colours are attractive on the plate. Some beetroot, some lettuce – Red Little Gem is what we eat about three times a week -will also go in to join the early potatoes and the green beans.

I love this time in the garden – so full of optimism and promise. In about 8 weeks, we will be cutting lettuces and picking green beans, harvesting and freezing herbs and making pesto for the winter. The effort put in really does feel worth it.

Wednesday, 15th May, 2024

Half way through May already. I have been feeling absolutely awful since late April. At times I thought I was just being lazy. At other times I thought I was depressed. Yesterday, reading an article in a local newspaper, I suddenly realised that I was reading about things which were happening to me that I thought were totally unrelated.

I’ve been suffering with all-pervasive fatigue for over 3 weeks. My joints have been aching to the point of ‘cracking’. Every day I’ve had to set myself tasks to get through and then force myself to complete them. My Gym routine has been an absolute nightmare to get through. I’ve had to tell my head each day to get on with it, to get through it. I just thought I was being bone-idle.

At the same time, my favourite drink – coffee – was leaving a dead, dry taste in my mouth. My other favourite drink – wine – was tasting like acid. I actually poured some bottles away thinking they were ‘corked’. I have been feeling sick after eating. I have had a cold and continuous dry cough. I’ve had loss of appetite and changed bowel movements. I felt a bit reassured when the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme found I was clear because my changes had raised concerns.

Suddenly yesterday, I read of the new FLiRT variant which has come from America and is now surging across UK and all my symptoms are brought together in this infection. At least I know I am not going mad. Pleased to hear that my friend, Kevin, got the all-clear (to coin a phrase) from his colonoscopy yesterday and now won’t need another for 3 years.

Going to force myself to Valet the car this morning in this wonderfully warm sunshine. I need it to be looking and feeling good because I’ve just booked a short trip to France next week in the hope of giving myself a boost. Don’t have to isolate now after 5 days of infection although I still won’t be doing too much kissing.

Thursday, 16th May, 2024

Finally, Dear Reader, after almost three, consecutive weeks, I have tested Covid-free. 💋💋 I’ve already informed the neighbours that I am available for kissing again. I’ve asked them to form an orderly queue. Fortunately, I’ve already delivered my wife to the Beautician’s where she will spend the next couple of hours having a complete face renovation so I’m free for a while.

It’s warm and raining this morning so all the seedlings are being watered in. Perfect growing weather. The garden smells wonderful and the air is full of birdsong. We have a resident blackbird who fills the sky with the most beautiful music. The fresh, new growth of greens in many shades would do credit to the Garden of Eden.

One of my more intelligent girls who missed an extended education because of pregnancy and family problems Whatsapp‘d me last night to say she had just completed her Degree at Manchester Metropolitan Uni. I was the first person she’d told, which was nice of her. Isn’t it great when people get there in the end. She’s 45 with three kids and a career as a Teaching Assistant in Oldham but she didn’t give up.

I really believe you can achieve most ambitions if you are prepared to keep going. You do need a bit of personal obsession – something I know quite a bit about. Doggedness, never letting the bone go can get you to most ambitions. It can make you annoying at times but you have to shake that off, keep your head down and keep going.

As the season for European travel approaches, I am having to check we have enough Euros in our travel store. I don’t like to use my Credit or Debit card abroad if I can avoid it. I prefer to fix my exchange rate rather than leave it to the bank at a time of their choosing.

It is totally different in UK though. I never have any cash apart from a £1.00 coin in my key ring holder for a supermarket trolley. I don’t bother carrying physical credit/debit cards any more. I was reading this article the other day which was saying that about 50% of us now never carry a wallet anymore.

Everything is contained within my Google Digital Wallet on my phone. I can pay out anything from a £1.00 to £50,000.00 or more with a single swipe of my mobile and tell it which Credit or Bank card I want it to use. I don’t have to remember account or pin numbers. It does it all for me. My Digital Wallet also contains Store Cards and Travel Passes. My Executive Lounge Card and my Boarding Passes are in there as well.

I love this advance in digital technology. I want to live another 100 years to see how it advances. Do you get post? We never get anything worthwhile now. Medical communications come straight to apps on our phones. Appointment letters are the same. I can’t think of a single thing where the hard copy was not preceded by a digital one. As the old people die off, non-digital methods will become irrelevant. Someone should tell the European Billionaire who is bidding to buy the Post Office. His investment will have a very short life time unless, of course, he is buying Parcel Force. Did you know you can pay a cheque into your Bank Account without leaving your home – just scan it in on your Mobile through your Banking App. This is how it should be.

The rain has stopped. The sun is out. The Garden is warm and sunny. As Eliot, quoting Julian of Norwich, says:

And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well

T.S. Eliot – Little Gidding – 1942

The nearest thing, Dear Reader, that I will ever get towards a religious spirit.

Friday, 17th May, 2024

Gorgeously sunny and warm morning. I’m celebrating by driving my wife to the Hairdresser’s. Parking is so difficult that it’s more reasonable for me to take her and pick her back up later. Beauty Clinic yesterday (£80.00) and Hairdresser today (£50.00). I’m keeping a close eye on her, Dear Reader. She says it is nothing compared to the hundreds I will spend on wine next week … and I’m finding that quite hard to argue against. Anybody got any good ideas?

After the hairdressers, the beautiful day has been given over to self-appointed public duties. All the lawns along the roadside are cut for the weekend and, today, we planted up all the cut-out flower beds in the lawns with plants I’ve been growing from seed in my coldframes.

After all the work of the day, I was out on my feet. It is a great feeling. When you’re retired, to find an activity to completely tire you out is a sign of success. Supper was Tuna Steaks griddled outside in the garden with green beans and a chilled glass of Bordeaux red. Hard to beat. Hope you are enjoying your Friday as much as me, Dear Reader.

Saturday, 18th May, 2024

One of those days when I had hoped for rain. I went to bed with forecasts guaranteeing substantial rain throughout Saturday and woke up to find everything had changed. It means I will be out with hosepipes and watering cans watering in all the carefully planted flowers from yesterday. Instead of sitting back and watching the rain, I will have to give over an hour or two to manual labour.

We have the most lovely neighbours. Lots of Whatsapp thanks from them this morning. One rang the bell this morning with a bunch of flowers. She said she came home from work last night and thought how wonderful the area looked.

Our neighbour in the house behind ours unexpectedly dropped in yesterday. He retired recently from a London City property developers and has moved to his villa just North of Alicante with his wife and son. Their house here has been Sold Subject to Contract for months but it will finally go through in the next couple of months. Wonder who will be arriving.

After 8 years here, the trees along our street are finally starting to grow into their looks. I have to confess that, until today, I wasn’t sure what trees they were. Today, using the Google Lens app on my phone, I established that they are Tilia Cordata better known as small-leaved Lime trees or Linden Trees.

In their new season’s growth, they are delicious and have been chosen to not grow too high. Unfortunately, they develop quite a thick canopy which stops rain and sunlight reaching the flower bed below which makes growing rather more challenging.

It is my littlest sister, Caroline’s 62 birthday today. I can’t believe it. When I left home, she was just 7 years old and tiny. She lives in Ireland and messaged me today that she is celebrating by hiking down the Derrynane mass path along the peninsula by the sea. She is a football fanatic and a Derby County supporter so she is already celebrating their promotion.