Sanders Blog

18th January, 2010

I am a Type 2 diabetic because I am so fat. It means I have to have my feet and eyes checked every year by diabetic specialists. Fortunately, neither are showing signs of diabetic damage but I do have them checked. Also, because I only have the sight in one eye, I have always been careful about attending check-ups. I go twice a year. My glasses check is due now and I am about to make an appointment at Specsavers for a test. My eye test is free and I usually get new glasses at the same time.

When I was 7 years old, in 1958, it was noticed that I kept walking in to lamposts and walls. I constantly had plasters across my nose. The Repton Primary School Doctor who visited once per term, first picked up that I was deaf in my left ear. As I left the classroom where I was being tested, I walked in to the the big, mahogany door. I was called back and given an eye test. They discovered that I was blind in my left eye. What had been going on with my left side in the womb I really don’t know. Even then, I was determined not to be a left-footer.

I was sent to the Derby Royal Infirmary Eye Clinic where I went with Mum. We must have gone on the bus but I can’t remember. I was prescribed glasses and we were sent to the Opticians connected to the hospital. It was called Wozencroft Opticians.

Wozencroft Opticians
59 Osmaston Road
Derby

I was tested and measured and told I would have National Health wire frames because they were ‘free’. I had to wait almost two months for them to arrive in the post. I remember it quite clearly because I couldn’t wait to show them off. I broke them within a month by sitting on them and had them stuck together with tape for ages. I bet Mum couldn’t face another bus journey. I checked today on Wozencrofts Opticians and it is still there. The name sounds Jewish or Polish Jewish to me but a quick search tells me it is old English and related to Wolstencroft.

Specsavers have a site where you can preview their frame designs and try them against your face. I don’t have an easy face to suit and have always tended to wear big, steel frames until the kids at school told me I wore 1970s pornstar glasses. I don’t know how they knew. Now I check the frames carefully. These are some examples that I’ve tried:

19th January,  2010

Pauline had to go to the hospital to have a disconcerting patch of skin on her forehead checked out by the dermatologist. Fortunately, it appears to be nothing to worry about. More disappointing was Man City’s win over United.

20th January,  2010

Pauline’s Mum’s health seems to be stable at the moment. I wish the same could be said of her TV. Flat-bound as she is, her television and DVD are lifelines and even more so now that cataracts are making reading difficult. We bought her a wide-screen tv 18 months ago but it died today and she was lost without it. We drove over the Pennines and bought her a new set, delivered it, installed all the Freeview channels and took the old one away. I don’t know if you’ve bought a TV recently but they are so (comparatively) cheap. We bought a Hitachi 32” LCD for her flat which won’t take a much bigger size. It cost us £270.00. No wonder no one repairs them. She is delighted with it. She says it is like being at the Pictures. So that’s fine!

21st January,  2010

I have always loved food as long as I can remember. Coming home from school after Rugby training to find tea not made, i remember eating my way through half of one of those sliced loaves from the pantry, thick with butter, and then looking forward to tea as normal – terrible pastry tarts, one plain one fancy biscuits. What were we doing? Pauline is a trained cook. She is brilliant. I like to think I can cook but then Pauline does the same thing a week or two later and there is no comparison. Unfortunately I didn’t learn the basics and find myself making it up as I go along – and making crass mistakes. As a cook, I am imaginative and enthusiastic but technically flawed. It gives me so much pleasure that I carry on.

I thought it was quite sad when Jane wrote to me recently and said she wasn’t interested in food. It almost seems like she is saying that she’s not interested in life. After oxygen (and wine), food is the staff of life. Of course there are those who eat to live and there are those who live to eat. I am definitely in the latter group. Combining lovely, fresh ingredients and producing wonderful tastes is an absolute delight for me. Today I cooked a version of Cod Provençal accompanied by Dauphinoise potatoes for dinner. I am pleased to say my supervisor thought it quite successful.

There are others in my camp. I received these incriminating photos recently of the meeting between Ruth & Kevan and Caroline & Les in Derby over the New Year. They ate in an Indian restaurant, I believe although that is one place you would never find me. I’m not too keen on Derby either. Have you noticed how often Ruth is seen with a glass of red wine in her hand? I’m beginning to worry about her.

As we arrange our drive through Europe in ten weeks time, we are planning to stop in Colmar, a medieval town in Alsace which produces wonderful wines, in Bolgna, the food capital of Italy and in Le Marche, home to the peasant cookery style  (so close to my own) of Italy

22nd January,  2010

Our computers and our Study are in the process of being tidied out. The computers still store ludicrous papers about Pedagogic Styles with an Interactive White Board  and Bringing Departmental Delivery in line with Virtual Learning Environment. If anybody would like a copy it is too late. This absolute nonsense has gone the way of all digital things. The Study has guides to Children’s Care, Learning & Development (who cares?) and Making Inclusion Happen (Include me out!) These were the stuff of mine and Pauline’s management trade. We should have been ashamed of ourselves. All of this rubbish will go to the tip but some things won’t.

After a new hard drive in my computer, I have had to import from the ether a backed-up copy of Pauline’s financial accounts going back to 22nd January 1993. Before that she was using account books. These are not being thrown out ever. The first book began on 25th September, 1981. I attach the first page of it for interest.

My first monthly pay cheque in October 1972 was £62.00. My annual salary was £950.00. You will see that by 1981, I was taking home £457.22. I was earning nearly £7,500.00 per year. How rich was that? Pauline took home £368.12 and earned about £6000.00 per year. It allowed us to buy Slade House, go on holiday to Greece, buy a new Datsun Cherry and eat out at the Sole Mio. For those of you who don’t remember the Datsun Cherry, I include one below. They only had a wing mirror on the driver’s side and that fell off.

As you will see, a meal at the Sole Mio – our local Italian – cost £10.75 (a 3 course meal for two with wine.) Today it would be £75.00.

23rd January,  2010

Since the beginning of the world, Leeds United have been hated for their thuggish lack of sophistication. For any sentient being alive to football in the late ‘60s and the ‘70s would recognise this characterisation particularly exemplified by Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter. Strange it was, therefore to find oneself supporting underdog, Northern Leeds against those Nancy-boy, superior Southerners, Tottenham Hotspur.  And how wonderful to see Beckford score an equaliser in the 96th minute. Sometimes begin to wonder if there is a god!

10th January,  2010 

Got an email from Liz with her new address: liz.bruce@manchester.gov.uk but, as she stresses, you must “keep it clean and appropriate please even Gods can be sacked!”

5.00 pm today it started snowing.

11th January,  2010 

5.00 pm today it stopped snowing. Twenty Four Hours of continuous snow has given our area its worst travelling conditions of the winter. To make matters worse, my hard drive suffered a catastrophic collapse and gave up the ghost. I couldn’t revive it in Safe Mode and resigned myself to starting again. Usually, someone at work would give up their time to set up a new hard drive for me but now it means a trip to the techies at PC World. My machine cost £2000.00 three years ago from Evesham Computers. It went out of business a year ago. The convention in our house is that I change my machine every 2 – 3 years and hand my old one down to Pauline. Fortunately, that is still available and on-line. I’ve already had to take a new Desktop and a laptop to Greece.

Another of the nine apartments that we are interested in in Surrey has been sold. We are starting to get a bit jumpy but there may be good news ahead.

12th January,  2010 

Snow clearing and swimming are the order of the day. Our old school is still not back in session since Christmas. Even as they clear the snow, the problems get worse. The local newspaper, The Oldham Chronicle, reported middle of the night call outs as pipes burst throughout the school.

Even Bob sent me some pictures of snow. This first one is the pond in his back garden:

and this second one is of two of his friends out on a walk:

The snow does look bad around Maidenhead but Bob does want you to know that he never really needed my help.

In between clearing snow, I am transfering old, analogue VHS video camera tapes of Greek holidays to digital DVD. I will then transfer the film to my PC (when I’ve got it repaired) to be edited. The juxtaposition of the snow of 2010 all around us while we watch the searingly hot scenes of 1990 in Greece is weird but wonderful. Did I say snow clearing? It’s 11.00 am and has just started snowing again.

13th January,  2010 

Today we are supposed to be driving down to London to put a deposit on an apartment. I am writing this on Tuesday evening because I expect to be leaving at 4.00 am. However, recent weather forecasts suggest snow all down the M1 as we drive. We are considering going on Friday now but that means we won’t be able to meet Ruth & Jane on Saturday. We’ll make a decision at 4.00 am today.

We left at 5.00 am. As soon as we opened our garage door, we knew it was sheet ice outside. The temperature was -4ºC. We slid  sideways down the Quarry Drive on to the main road which was also sheet ice and then had a steep hill covered in black ice to contend with on our way to Ainley Top and the motorway. Two cars with their front ends smashed in from two separate incidents the night before were left on the side of the hill. We struggled up one side and down the other to the M62. The motorway was fine but thoughts of the precious road rather undermined my confidence in it.

By 6.30 am we stpped at Trowell South Services (no I’ve never heard of it either – It’s near Ilkeston.) for coffeee. Just as I was parking, I laughed my socks off as this little dumpy woman in bobble hat and pink boots did the splits as she hit the tarmac. I thought she must be drunk. I got out of the car still laughing and promptly fell flat on my face. The entire car park was glassy, black ice. Short of crawling on all fours, we couldn’t reach the coffee shop. We had to drive round to the undercover petrol station and get coffee there. Good job really because Pauline was desperate for the loo.

We continued to drive and light snow began to fall. We drove on but, as we approached Rugby, the snow came down heavily, the traffic increased and the motorway turned white. Our mobile went and the lady we were going to meet from the sales office in Surrey phone Pauline’s mobile to say, “Don’t bother coming. It’s taken me an hour to drive the mile from my house.” We turned round and drove home but that’s where our trouble started.

As we approached the top of the hill down to our house at about 11.00 am, walkers stopped us with tales of the black ice and carnage of cars on the hill. We turned round and drove three miles to the start of the other approach road to our home only to find it closed by the police because of a bad accident. We thought we weren’t going to get home. There was one last way – another couple of miles detour which led to a cobblestone hill (locally known as The Cobbles).

Gingerly, we drove passing car wreck after car wreck. We actually reached The Cobbles and the rutted surface actually helped our ascent. To our horror, the road leading to our quarry was sheet ice lined on both sides with abandoned cars. The quarry was half blocked with cars which couldn’t move. More by luck than judgement, we manoeuvred inch by inch until we faced the mouth of the quarry which was still thick with snow. Our car likes snow and we shot up to our garage, automatic doors opening gratefully and swallowing us up.

14th January,  2010 

I woke up bruised and aching this morning. I think I’ve sprained my big toe. I must remember that I’m not a 25 year old rugby player any more. Of course, I take warfarin which causes internal bleeding and my skin bruises angrily like a purple wheal across my flesh. Still I felt better after tea and toast and a phone call to say my computer was ready for collection.

Today’s Huddersfield Examiner reported:

FREEZING ice chaos hitting Huddersfield has been described as the worst ever seen by police and highways staff. One of Huddersfield’s most experienced traffic officers said the chaos caused by icy roads led to more than 100 accidents and grit stocks in Kirklees remain at “critical level” with stocks dwindling despite the cutbacks in gritting.

Once again today, 92% of the schools across Kirklees were closed again. I really don’t know what’s happening in Education nowadays. They’re probably all at home watching the cricket. England all out for 180. What is Peterson doing?

15th January,  2010 

My PC, which cost me £2,500.00 three years ago has had a £50.00 new hard drive fitted and is ready to be picked up from PC World. A lovely Techie called Rabnawaz has worked on it, putting back Vista Premium and all the service packs. He has upgraded all my drivers for me. I do it myself but all of them at one sitting was monotony personified. I’ve still got to hook all my hardware up, recreate my home network and then download all my files from my internet-based Sky Drive, including my websites. I have to reinstall Ms Office 2007, MacromediaSuite (Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash), AdobePhotoshop, Acrobat Professional  and one or two other lesser programs.  It takes hours. It will fill Sunday.

Back to Surrey this lunchtime. I certainly couldn’t take any more Test Match today. We are hoping to look at one of the three remaining apartments in the building we have both liked and, possibly, to semi-secure it with a deposit.

16th January,  2010 

The journey down was good yesterday but we couldn’t get an appointment and had to wait till today. The meeting wasn’t until lunchtime so we were almost certainly going to miss meeting Ruth & Jane in Yorkshire. That would have been historic and Ruth will probably kill me. I feel very bad about it (if she’s reading this). The apartments left are not really good enough and we decided it was better not to commit ourselves. Didn’t leave Surrey until 5.00 pm and traffic was bad on the way back. It took nearly five hours and I was shattered. I just got in to see highlights of Chelsea put seven goals past Sunderland. I hate Chelsea.

17th January,  2010 

Woke up shattered. I must be getting old! Spent the day bringing my computer up to spec before uploading Bob’s photo on the web and bringing my Blog up to date. The snow is beginning to thaw. I think I see a little bit of lawn this afternoon. Tomorrow, we will return to our work pattern: up at 7.00 am, shower and large cup of tea, off to the Health Club for 9.00 am. Swimming, Jacuzzi, Steam Room, a bit more swimming and off by 11.00 am; coffee and The Times followed by what ever we want. Sounds wonderful.

3rd – 5th January, 2010

The snow has been totally incapacitating here this week. To make matters worse, we had to leave our car with the repairers for two days. There are only a few days a year when a 4-wheel drive is essential each year and we contrived to give ours away. I wrote of a young lad reversing into our car in Sainsbury’s car park just before Christmas. The damage was minor but needed repairing. We had a date for repair before Christmas but the snow came so we cancelled and rearranged for Monday-Tuesday this week. We couldn’t back out again as the snow threatened. We drove through a blizzard to deliver our car and pick up our Honda Jazz courtesy car.

It is difficult enough changing a large, luxurious car for a little runaround but this was manual and just front-wheel drive. As we drove home, the falling snow was already causing major problems for drivers. We made it and shut ourselves away for two days. I watched the Test Match. It wasn’t going entirely to plan. South Africa were getting on top.

I thought you might like to see a local garden party, and photos of the road:

Also I have two photos of Jane BG in the snow:

At least I got some wonderful photos from Ruth illustrating that her snow was pretty deep as well.

Twenty Five years ago Bjorn Rodnes, a Norweigian Ceramics teacher  in our school left us to go and lecture at the University of Edinburgh. We have never seen him since. However, every year of that 25 we have exchanged a Christmas Card. In fact we have exchanged the same two Christmas Cards throughout that 25 years. This is the one for this year. Obviously, it is stuffed with twenty five years of notes on pieces of paper stuffed inside the card. We really treasure it and look forward to receiving it.

6th January, 2010

Pauline’s Mum had three Hospital appointments this week. Each one we go on means a 40 mile round trip and takes half a day. This week it should have been:

• Skin cancer on nose check up.
• Pre-Cataract operation assessment
• Internal scan

Because of the weather, they were all cancelled. The upside and downside of this was that I had all the time in the world to watch the Test Match. It was quite surreal. The entirety of our little world had shut down because of weather. All the schools were closed. Our old school was closed for the week which rather miffed us. Kirklees ran out of gritting material. Nowhere had rock salt for sale. The Test Match was conducted under brilliant blue skies and searing temperatures.

7th January, 2010

England won a famous Draw in the Test Match.

The meter linked to my computer told me that by 10.00 pm tonight the temperature was down to -12°C. Our new Electricity Monitor was working overtime.

8th January, 2010

Had an email from Jane earlier in the week. She was telling me of the places she is intending to visit over the next few months. I think it is meant to be a counterpoint to my talking about spending so much time in one place – id est  Greece for 180 days in 2010. Jane says she is holidaying in Peru in August. This suddenly triggered a memory in me that I don’t remember telling anyone about before.

When Bob went to the Antarctic (I’m not sure exactly when that was), Mum was very worried about him. Every time I phoned home she spoke about it. I think it must have been about 1974 or so. I was only a couple of years in to my teaching career and I didn’t know how to placate Mum’s fears. She told me it was my job to look after my little brother. My knowledge of where he was based was ludicrously minimal. (I passed GCE Geography by writing about Indians eating rice.) Anyway, I can see myself now – aged about 23-24 – in the school library with a pupil’s atlas checking on where South Georgia was. When I found it, I thought, “There’s no way I’m going there!” The next best thing, I thought, was to get as close to him as I could then, if anything went wrong, I wouldn’t be too far away. Where should I go? I consulted the atlas.

South America looked a short hop from South Georgia. What’s in South America? I consulted the atlas. Chile? Chile in 1974 was not a good place to be. I chose Peru as the next best place.

I got the Times Educational Supplement and looked up ‘Jobs in Peru’. Immediately I found one. British Council: Teachers of English in Peru. I wrote off immediately without thinking and without telling anyone. A month went by and I heard nothing. I completely forgot about it. One Saturday morning a brown envelope arrived. I had an interview in London a week later. I went to tell the Head that I needed time off to go to London and that I needed a reference. At that point, my good will crumpled. The Head didn’t want to lose me, offered me a better job and I ditched Bob to fate and accepted the additional £1000.00 a year or what ever it was.

9th January, 2010

I received a touching email from Caroline yesterday. I can’t believe what she is going through. I know she won’t mind me sharing it with you. This is what she wrote:

Dear John,

What a lovely week we’ve had, it took us 4 hrs to drive a two hour journey back from Cork airport on Sunday.

On Monday we discovered we were living on borrowed time with our water, the pipes were frozen from our well and we were living on the water in the tank and we had loaned our friends across the mountains our water butts as there system had failed. We rang John R’s our friendly local builders merchants, all out of water butts! We were iced in and I returned to work, I had to walk all the way from the back bedroom to the front bedroom, to my office. The washing is lying stinking in big heaps and the dishwasher is full of dirty ware.

On Wednesday we attempted to get out to buy bottled water. It took us an hour to crawl a mile and half to Blackwater Bridge and back, the main road was closed. We finally got out on lunchtime to buy 41 lites of bottled water for drinks and cooking, another cannister of gas and much needed rations for ourselves and the birds. We met the whole valley and exchanged words about of all things the weather.  But the most important purchase was Batiste dry shampoo, once home again I re-acquainted myself with batiste dry shampoo, you spray it on massage in, brush through and viola you hair is miraculously clean. I had to use it for the first 6 months when we bought the cottage and had no running water.

On Thursday night – suddenly there was a big cracking noise then a series of smaller ones. Les went up in the loft and outside to check the chimney. A block had cracked next to the chimney.

 On Friday, Les rang assorted mates, Dick, Simon and Mike to find out what the story was with said chimney. The result the previous owners must have had a fire in the chimney at some stage and not had it repaired. The solution a new chimney liner has to be fitted, Les rang John R’s again, it will take 3 days to get itIn the meantime he discovers that indeed a trickle of water is getting into the tank so there is a real possibility that we will have a shower, yippee, I am doing cartwheels. A man on Radio Kerry announces that this weather is here to stay until possibily March, the first year we have to disconnect the central heating boiler due to the extension and we have the coldest winter in decades and pay cuts, oh the joys.

Love Cal x

PS: Welcome to reality with the car most people drive runarounds and can’t afford luxurious ones

This is Cal and Les on their wedding day – 30 December, 2000. This will be Photo of the Week next week and will be accompanied by her story.

27th December, 2009

Pauline’s Mum went back to her flat today. At lunchtime we drove her over the snow-covered wastes of the Pennine Moors to the wastes that we call Oldham. She was happy and Pauline had made her a Turkey & Stuffing sandwich to take with her for her lunch. She was going to practise on a tin of beans with her new can opener.

Sunday papers, Test Match followed by football. Heaven! The cricket went well and I would say that England were slightly ahead.

Watched Arsenal beat Aston Villa and Hull lose toMan. United who played played poorly but ground out a result.

A day of eating leftovers before the big diet. I had to eat Gravadlax (home-cured), Roast Ham (home-cooked), a terrine of pork and partridge with beef fillet and bacon (home cooked), Christmas cake (home baked & decorated), minced pies (home baked with home made mince meat), Full Cream Ice Cream (home made). All that was after a bacon sandwich for lunch (toasted home made bread). Lunch was washed down with half a bottle of Claret and Dinner was completed with a bottle of Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. Bring on the diet, PLEASE!

28th December, 2009

Freezing outside. Got up at 7.00 am and went swimming. It was delicious. The pool was empty for an hour as were the jacuzzi and steam room. As I drove to the Health Club, the sky was gloriously rich. There was virtually no breeze and the sunh shone.

En route, I stopped to take a photo and was suddenly mobbed by all these animals wanting my autograph. I tried to shun them but one , Shauna, particularly sheepishly demanded the right to be herd.

29th December, 2009

Pauline’s Mum had to be taken to Hospital for her cataract operation. Why do these obligations always clash with the Test Match? England scored  575 – 9 Declared and then proceeded to skittle out the first six South African wickets and I spent five hours sitting in a Hospital car park while Pauline’s Mum was waiting to be told that her eyes were too dry for a cataract operation she had been waiting for for months. I had to make do with Test Match Special on Radio 4 Longwave.

30th December, 2009

Thirty one years ago this morning, we woke up to thick snow everywhere. It was the morning of our wedding. I really enjoyed the day. Our little house was crammed with family and friends. It was lovely.

The intervening years have been fantastic. Thirty one years later, we have woken up to thick snow and a blizzard. We stayed tucked up to celebrate our anniversary. We planned our Spring Departure to our Greek Home, had champagne and canapés for Lunch followed by Pheasant in red wine jus with roasted root vegetables for Dinner. Just had time to watch Man United thrash Wigan before going to bed.

31st December, 2009

Happy New Year to All Our Readers.

1st January, 2010

Fought our way over the Pennines today to visit Pauline’s Mum. The road was bleak, treacherous but spectacular. Without a 4-wheel Drive we wouldn’t have attempted it.

2nd January, 2010

Just managed to get the papers today before the snow set in for another day. This Global Warming is driving me mad. The Times says this has been the coldest December for thirty years. Some wacky scientists have been observed that a totally unexpected lack of solar activity over the past Decade which parallels a similar solar phase in the Eighteenth Century as a lack of sun spots accompanied earth cooling is merely masking Global Warming. They also think it is possible for 5 billion angels to dance on the head of a pin.

Had texts and phone calls from Caroline and Ruth throughout the day. Caroline has been in England (well nearly – Newcastle actually) for the New Year period. She managed to persuade Newcastle & Derby to Draw 0-0 and then went down to leave flowers on Mum’s grave. She drove past Mum’s old bungalow but says she could see little signs of change. She agreed to meet Ruth in Derby. Cal was staying at The Stuart Hotel in Derby.

Ruth had to drive with Kev, I think, through snow down to Derby. She had a difficult journey and got lost in Derby. Who wouldn’t?

20th December, 2009 

Snowed incessantly around Yorkshire today. Just managed to get the Sunday papers before it set in. Elsewhere in Britain the Eurostar service has been cancelled stranding 75000 travellers and 2000 were trapped in the tunnel all night while thousands of cars and lorries parked along the M20 unable to move. Lovely cartoon in The Sunday Telegraph today:

21st December, 2009 

The shortest day of the year. It actually felt like it today. The sun shone in a crystal blue sky and seemed low to the horizon all day, skimming the snow drifts. Diggers came and released us from our snow-drift prison just after lunch. We drove over the Pennines to see Pauline’s Mum. Thought you might like to see some shots of the moors on the way over:

This is on the Nont Sarah’s road (A640) running parallel to the M62. It is a favourite for hang gliding. They throw themselves off the side of the escarpment and out across the moor.

22nd December, 2009 

The snow came in waves today. There was white-out at times on the M62.

The best place was tucked up with a glass of dry sherry, a mince pie and a copy of The Times. Started to plan our trip across Europe in the Spring to our home in Greece. Making lists of all the things we must take with us:

• 50″ LCD TV
• 2 x Garden Spade
• 2 x Garden Fork
• Video Camera
• Enough wine for 6 months
• Etc, Etc, Etc.

Usually, Christmas holidays are the time to book sailings: Hull – Zeebrugge (return P&O) and Ancona – Patras (return Superfast) plus Piraeus – Sifnos (return Hi-Speed). We would already have bought our Easter flights last Summer. Not this year. We expect to leave in April without booking anything. We will not drive to Hull but down to Dover and sail to Calais. We will drive until we want to stop and then find a hotel in France and then another one in Italy and the one in Patras, Greece before arriving at our island. We will take any ferry that is available as long as it is comfortable. We won’t book returns.

23rd December, 2009 

Had to do the hoovering today. Fortunately, the hoover overheated half way through the house and I had to stop. Like 90% of the country, we have a Dyson. We also have new carpets throughout the house. Dyson’s have a tendency to clog up their filters and overheat. New carpets give off a lot of fluff. This is our Dyson and it’s rubbish.

Pauline’s niece, Mandy, is a Director of Xerox. I’ve probably told you all this before but she gave up work for three or four years and adopted three little boys. They are now growing up well, attending Private schools and playing every sport imaginable. They play at the London Irish club where James (the middle one) is quite a star. Daniel, the youngest one is good at football and has been spotted by a scout from Premier League, Fulham Football Club. He has been invited to join their Young Academy. This is the three brothers in their London Irish kit:

24th December, 2009 

A blizzard hit us this morning around 9.00 am. We set off at 10.00 am to cross the Pennines to get Pauline’s Mum. Fortunately, a 4 wheel drive makes mince meat of these conditions. Unfortunately, she is so frail compared with this time last year. The first entry of this Blog (Week 1 : 25th December, 2008) was a picture of Pauline and her Mum. A year shows quite a big difference. Certainly, this year walking is much more difficult. The stairs are like a mountain. Well, they are for me too.

25th December, 2009 

Happy Christmas one and all! Up at 7.00 am as usual. This is the scene outside:

We always have the traditional Sanders Breakfast – Toast and home-cooked Ham although I eat it with Dijon mustard. Pauline & I don’t give each other Christmas presents and haven’t done for years – not since our first Christmas together when we gave each other 40 presents each. Pauline’s Mum got presents – a new skirt and house shoes, books and an easy use electronic can opener. They are really brilliant. You literally plonk them on the can and press a button.

Because the rest of Pauline’s family is in Surrey, we have to take photos to send to them to prove we are enjoying ourselves:

The turkey is cooking along with sage & onion stuffing and force meat stuffing. Potatoes & Parsnips are par boiled. Sprouts are waiting in the pan of water for the starters gun. The bread sauce is already prepared as are the pigs in blankets. Mum would approve. She wouldn’t approve of the cheer that went up when I watched the Pope being forced to the floor by some sex-starved woman during Midnight Mass in Rome.

Pauline & I never drink champagne. It doesn’t really agree with either of us. Today at 11.00 am , I settled down to an hour and a half of How England Won the Ashes on Sky Sports and drank a bottle of pink champagne that Pauline’s niece, Mandy, had bought us. I don’t know if it was the emotion of the event (I had missed the Ashes Series while I was in Greece and only kept up to speed by texts from Ruth.) or the quality of the drink but it was some of the best champagne I have drunk. Oeil de Perdrix:

Cheers everyone!

I meant to applaud Caroline for her immense good taste in Christmas Cards. She sent us exactly the same one that we sent out. Only after hers arrived did I notice that it sponsored Irish charities.

It was officially a white Christmas in Quarry Court with snow falling heavily at 6.00 pm.

26th December, 2009 

Snow turned to rain over night and then froze hard. What do you do on Boxing Day? I did what all good husbands do: I toured the town for a chemists to buy cream to soothe my Mother-in-Law’s Piles. You can’t beat it for fun! Whereas my Christmas Day was calmness personnified, Ruth was doing crowd control – not at Bolton Wanderers because that would have been too easy. No, Ruth was controlling the hordes in her own home!

Look at this lovely Christmas Table setting BEFORE & AFTER & EVEN AFTER THAT:

This is Brandon Pickle. Have you ever seen a boy with such wrinkly legs? How do Granny & Grandad Butcher do it?

Those responsible for this tribe shall not go unpardoned:

13 December, 2009 

This is the final week of the Blog’s first year. Let’s hope for thirty more! I suffer from Atrial Fibrillation. It is no big deal but it does increase my risk of strike and heart attack. For that reason, I have to take the blood thinning agent – Warfarin. I also have to be regularly monitored by the hospital Anti-Coagulant Department. There are risks with taking warfarin: a serious cut may not stop and lead to bleeding to death. A fall could cause internal bleeding. I had a heavy fall while gardening in Greece and found the whole of my left side with massive and angry bruising which took three months to disappear. Pauline wants to get me off warfarin and today she found an article in The Sunday Times. It describes a new, implant technique that is being performed by a consultant at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington which obviates the need for warfarin. I attach the newspaper cutting: atrial_fibrilation.pdf

14 December, 2009

Just like buses, you wait for ages then two come along together. This morning another treatment avoiding the use of warfarin was announced. I attach the journal cutting: atrial_fibrilation3.pdf

15 December, 2009

Pauline has complained for the past 40 years that she didn’t have time to indulge her passion for cooking. Well now she does. It’s only half way through December and I’m already mince-pied out. We are on our third batch and we haven’t even started on Christmas Cake or Pudding. She’s made them all. Admittedly, Pauline’s mincemeat is a wonder of the world.

16 December, 2009

Received a lovely collection of photos from Ruth’s belly dancing break. Didn’t look too warm and sunny. I was afraid of that. At least Bolton won.

17 December, 2009

We are on diet-watch. Ironically, we are not watching our own diets although we definitely need to. We are watching Pauline’s Mum’s diet to make sure she eats enough. Today it was Lasagne with sheets of spinach green pasta. It was wonderful. Pauline made it at home and we set off across the Moors to the Barnes residence where it was cooked. Pauline’s Mum ate a huge plateful. We had set off in a flurry of snow. The Pennine ridge looked sugar dredged and as we crossed from East to West the scenery was beautiful:

18 December, 2009

Pauline is showing me no mercy. She has completed the Chrismas Cake. With a little historical touch, she has  furnished it with decorative figures she first bought for her GCE ‘O’ Level cooking class 43 years ago. It is quite amazing to think girls at the age of fifteen were making Chrismas Cakes in Home Economics in those days. They don’t get much further than sandwiches nowadays. I have included two photos of the cake. The second one was to provide a sense of scale.

19 December, 2009

Memory can be quite painful and often surprising. Pauline & I were married 31 years ago (in about 11 days). It was thick with snow and the Gritters were on strike in Callaghan’s Britain which made the journey difficult for many people. As I write this, waves of snow are coming towards us across the Pennines. How lucky are we? We are tucked up warmly and have every conceivable distraction. The temperature was -13°C last night. Can you imagine the effect on a rough sleeper and we have some of those around Huddersfield. Last night, one group really were sleeping roughly, stuck in Eurotunnel without warmth or sustenance.

Memory of my wedding is neither painful or surprising. I loved it. This week, however, is the anniversary of the execution of Nicolae Ceauşescu.

Twenty Years! Can you believe that? I can picture those last days in Romania as if I was there myself. Twenty years! That is very frightening. In twenty years, if I am still alive, I will be 78 years old. It has gone so fast and will go so fast. Time seems to go faster the older one gets. Forty years ago and away from home for the first time fending for myself I was never happier. I did what I wanted, wore what I wanted and ate what I wanted when I wanted to. It was like a dream come true. What came as an absolute shock to me was that these newly found freedoms were of so little significance to my peers. They had taken them for granted during their childhood. I could dine out on stories of family tea times and ‘one plain and one fancy’. Do you remember that? My friends were incredulous when I said that I had never been allowed to choose a single item of clothing for myself and they thought I made up stories of being taken to the Gents Outfitters by Mum and, after the shop assistants had received their obligatory dressing down from Mum, I left with striped nylon shirts to be worn with khaki slacks and a mustard coloured cravat.

Forty years ago this winter was my first away from home. My Best Man at my wedding – Kevin Dagg – was one of the first people I shared digs with. Today I received a card from his wife with a photograph taken in those first few months:

It is a scan of a photocopy of a scan of a photo so the quality is very poor. If you’re unsure, I am the one bottom right with his hand up.

6th December, 2009

We want to downsize, to take a chunk of equity out of our house, to move South for better transport links, to find somewhere which is new-build and more manageable when we are out of the Country for half the year and to have security over that period. We have found an apartment which we think fits the bill but can’t sell our house.

We are not so desperate that we will sell cheaply or buy expensively. In fact, I intend to be a cash buyer when we do go and to extract the full bargaining power that that includes. It did make us a bit depressed today, however, to find it advertised in The Sunday Times & The Sunday Telegraph.

7th December, 2009

We have yet another skip on our drive.

Slowly but surely we are throwing away our past. We are known as The Skip People in Quarry Court, not because we live in one but because we are always hiring them. This time it was for emptying the attic, tidying the garden and clearing out umpteen things we brought away from school. Folders of Policies, policy documents, if we’ve written one, we’ve written forty.

• Anti-bullying
• Dealing with Racist Incidents
• Individualised Learning
• Incorporating new technology into pedagogy
• Using the Virtual Learning Environment

And so on and so on. And why? Did it really make any difference? Did it hell! All those hours, all those late nights. What a lot of nonsense. We are so pleased to be out of it. With every skip we feel lighter.

8th December, 2009

I’m thinking of applying for a mobile home in Oldham Hospital car park. I spent another five hours there again yesterday. Pauline’s Mum was taken ill again and an ambulance had to be called. She was suffering from severe dehydration last time and imminent kidney failure. As a result, she was told to eat and drink more. She always does as she is told and has been eating and drinking a lot more but severe dehydration and imminent kidney failure were diagnosed again today after six hours of tests. She is being kept in over night. I just got home to watch a few minutes of Man. U. and Gerry Robinson’s investigation into Dementia Care Homes. Life is just one bundle of laughs.

9th December, 2009

Great swim, toast & coffee and then off to see Pauline’s Mum in Oldham Royal. Yet another accident had blocked the M62 and we had to go across the Moors instead. The Motorway is blocked a couple of times a week regularly because of the pressure of numbers.

Pauline’s Mum is being kept in for more tests but, having been rehydrated, she is bouncing around like a two year old and managing her own care.

Received an email from Jonathan Kelly today. He is a three years older than me and has been living in the US – Masachusetts – for 27 years. He has worked at Foster-Miller, and engineering research and innovation company all this time. Ironically, this company was bought out by a British one called QinetiQ six years ago. Jonathan tells me that he won’t be able to afford to retire at least until he’s 67 because he will lose his Medical cover from his firm. Employers don’t run pension schemes in America. Employees are expected to make there own provision. To make things worse, Jonathan’s Employers are suffering badly in the downturn and going through swathes of redundancies. Jonathan says that they are all permanently on a knife edge but he has survived so far. It doesn’t sound like the great, capitalist dream is quite doing it.

10th December, 2009

Pauline was awarded the Life Saver of the Day award at the Health Club. We were luxuriating in the jacuzzi looking over a totally empty pool. (One of the benefits of being free during work hours is that the facilities are so quiet.) The pool surface was glassy and undisturbed. Suddenly, something broke the surface and zipped across the pool. It stopped. Pauline dashed over. It zipped across the surface, rippling the pool again. Pauline leant forward and, skimming with her hand, pulled out a fly doing the backstroke. She flipped it over on the poolside and, after a couple of moments reorientation, the fly flew off. Pauline was wildly applauded by me from the jacuzzi.

Pauline’s Mum has come out of hospital. The verdict is that, because she is 95, her kidneys are not working efficiently and so she becomes dehydrated. We have no idea or advice on how to deal with this.

I learn today that John Humphreys has a grown up son called Christopher. He is a professional cellist who lives and works in Athens. In the past ten years, Humphreys and his son have bought land and built a house on the Pelopponese. As a result of that, he and his son have contributed to the collection of books that I will feed in to by writing a book about their experiences of building in Greece.

11th December, 2009

It was actually dry all day today – but dark and foggy and uninviting. Wrote a long email to Jonathan Kelly today. I was trying to describe events in my life since I last saw him in 1975. Found myself refering to Middle & Working Classes and realised he would have little memory or concept of that. Jonathan has a SIP  to look forward to when he retires in his mid to late 60s. With the current state of the Markets, it probably won’t be worth much but it is a fore-runner of the pensions for all state employees very soon. Like Jonathan, many Public Sector workers are seeing pay freezes or pay cuts for quite some time to come – maybe three or four years. Final Salary pensions, I predict, will go in the life time of the next Conservative Government. This has to happen. We just can’t afford it. Public Sector pay must be slashed and many jobs must go. We just can’t afford to support them on our pension. Thank goodness we are out of all that. I am thinking of joining The Pensioners’ Party. I might even put myself forward as a parliamentary candidate. Quangocracy, Local Beaurocracy must go! Let’s have slash & burn Conservatism!

29th November, 2009

Pauline’s Mum was just preparing to be discharged from hospital when she had an angina attack. The clinical team decided that they would have to do more tests and keep her in over night again.

30th November, 2009

My turn to go to hospial today for the anti-coagulant clinic. Everything is fine. After lunch it was off to pick Pauline’s Mum up from Oldham Royal. This is it but look how dark it was at 2.30 this afternoon:

I had to drive round for about a week before I could find a parking spot. I drove past all the main car parks which were full. I drove through the reserve car park, the reserve reserve car park and the reserve, reserve, reserve car park and still they were full. I returned to the front entrance and dropped Pauline off. I continued to drive round and round for 40 mins without a single space becoming available. Bear in mind I could have parked in any small corner on double yellow lines because I had Pauline’s Mum’s Disabled Card in the car. As it approached 45 mins of driving, I found a space right outside the front entrance but by this time, Pauline was phoning me to say Mum was not being let out today. I read The Times and listened to Classic fm. Pauline appeared and we drove the 35 mins home.

We had just driven in to the garage when Pauline’s mobile went. We could pick her Mum up. She was being released. 70 mins driving later we got her back to our house where she will spend a few days recuperating.

1st December, 2009

Cold – very cold – and bright this morning. How wonderful. At last we can get in the garden to do some tidying. We’ve had a skip on hire for more than a week and we haven’t had one dry day until this morning. Still had to do the obligatory day’s work at the health club followed by a huge bowl of porridge. Outside for a couple of hours in the garden. The news told us that November has been the wettest on record. That wasn’t news to us.

Many, many years ago – maybe fifty, Granddad Coghlan woke Robert and myself and I think, possibly, Jane at 5.00 am and took us out across the fields to pick mushrooms. I have no recollection which fields we went across but I remember coming back with an empty basket ready for breakfast. The problem with wild mushrooms is not just where to find them but would you trust them. One of our lawns has suddenly become a mushroom farm.

As you will all know, these funghi look quite like chanterelles but who would trust them enough to taste them? Not I. I will kill them with weed killer to get my lawn back.

It’s 9.00 pm and Manchester United are thrashing Spurs once again in torrential rain.

2nd December, 2009

Retiree’s dream – mild, dry and bright – did some gardening.

Good luck, Ruth, in the Turkish Belly Dancing Championships. I already have before and after photos.

Before 

After 

Well done, Ruth. Let’s hope Kevan is proud of you and your accomplishments!

3rd December, 2009

Took Pauline’s Mum home to her flat today. She wasn’t completely ready but it is doubtful she ever would be now and I couldn’t stand any more Home & Away, Emmerdale, Deal or No Deal, etc..

4th December, 2009

Lengthy swim today. Found myself in the changing room with two 80 year olds. Told them that when I was their age, they would be 100. We agreed to meet in the Gym on my 80th. As well as exercising my body, I am also exercising my mind. I am preparing to write a book about our experiences as travellers in Greece over the past 25 years. It is a period when Greece has moved from being a third world country almost to the first world. They are members of the European Community and of the Euro although they are under great economic pressure from the EEC at the moment. There is a whole oeuvre of writing in this area. I have twenty or thirty books about people adopting Greece, at least temporarily, finding and renovating or building a house and living in Greece for a while. Our building of a house in Greece started when I read a book by Austen Kark. He was the husband of Nina Bawden, a children’s author who had featured heavily in my early teaching. She wrote books like Carrie’s War, The Finding, etc..

Austen Kark had been Managing Director of The BBC World Service after being manager of its Eastern European Service.During that time he fell in love with Greece.

He and Nina Bawden bought a ruined old classical house in Nauplion (pronounced Nafplion) on the Peloponnese.

Austen Kark wrote a book about the experience of restoring his Greek house. He and his wife would fly out to Athens regularly and stay at the Electra Hotel, Athens.

I was captured and, since then, harboured the ambition to build a house in Greece. We also made The Electra Hotel  our regular haunt when we visited Athens. I also decided that there was a book I could write about the journey to a life in the Cyclades and on Sifnos. Currently, I am reading and analysing other people’s books. This week I am reading a book by Fionnuala Brennan, currently a lecturer in Dublin City University’s Business School. She is married to poet, Rory Brennan, with two daughters Orla and Fiona and they lived on Paros full time from 1971-1979. To be honest, I think I could do a much better job than this.

5th December, 2009

Lovely day today. Man U. beat West Ham who I’ve always hated and Man City beat Chelsea who I’ve come to hate. Happy Days!

22nd November, 2009

Do you remember the chimney sweep coming to the fireplace in the Dining Room of 81 High Street? I can’t work out how many of you are old enough for that. It was the first time I learnt the word BRUNCH. It must have been 1956-57. Being sent to bed about 7.30 pm (at the age of 5 or 6) and told that tomorrow we would not be allowed downstairs until the chimney sweep had come and gone. Mum always got het up about the Plan of Campaign she had to put into operation. When we were finally allowed downstairs for BRUNCH it was hard to see what all the fuss was about. One fireplace; one chimney; a few dust sheets; job done. But Mum was certainly red in the face and noughty throughout the whole process.

23rd November, 2009

This morning we had a Plan of Campaign. We had already emptied the loft of literally dozens of boxes containing warranties dating back to 1994 and tens of rolls of carpet off-cuts in the most lurid colours and patterns imaginable. At 7.00 am there was no breakfast, no huge cup of tea or bowl of porridge. All the hall, stairs, landing had to be covered in dust sheets – not for the chimney sweep but for the loft insullation man. Our house was built in 1990 and the loft was insullated to an industry-standard 4″. Currently the industry-standard is 12″. Kirklees Council sent a little man round with twelve huge rolls of Rockwool.

It took him three hours of hard labour. Our loft is boarded but I never go up there so he just laid it over the boards. Throughout the time he was here, neither Pauline or I got red in the face or worked up. The whole thing, after all, was done completely free of charge. Seems strange really that such money should be lavished on a middle class household who could easily afford to pay for it but who are we to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Pauline is loving having the time to indulge her real passion (no, not me!), cooking. She has always made our bread and pasta but she has cured our olives to perfection and the quince jam she made is delicious.  Now she is making minced meat, Christmas Pudding and Christmas Cake. It is a few years since she bothered or had the time to do that. We don’t even celebrate Christmas other than nominally. We do have a Turkey or a Goose. A couple of years ago we had a trendy five bird roast with turkey, goose, pheasant, partridge & pigeon but that was just greedy. We are very keen on game birds nowadays. We usually go to our local farmshop and buy pheasant, mallard, partridge, etc. They are so cheap and low in fat and wonderfully tasty. A brace of pheasants up here cost £5.00 and a couple of partridge would be £6.00. We buy rabbits for £2.00 and they almost give wood pigeons away. Game Pie or Game Pate is wonderful or maybe pheasant breast wrapped with Parma ham.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 Pheasant breasts wrapped in Parma ham

Serves 6

Ingredients

6 pheasant breasts
12 slices of Parma ham
12 large sage leaves
Salt and pepper
Butter
Olive oil

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
• Season each breast and place two sage leaves on each one. Lie two slices of Parma ham out flat and place a pheasant breast at one end. Roll the pheasant breast up quite tightly. Repeat with each breast.
• Melt a little butter with some olive oil in a large frying pan and sear the pheasant parcels on each side for 1 minute or so. Then place in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Allow to rest for 2-4 minutes before serving.

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Served with garlic mash and red wine jus you can’t beat it. I’m starving!

24th November, 2009

After two hours at the Health Club this morning, we went off to Hinchcliffe’s Farm shop for meat. It’s only a couple of miles away from us and wonderfully stocked. We came away with groaning bags:

• 6 Pheasant
• 4 Woodcock
• 2 huge belly pork
• 2K of best minced beef
• 4 Lamb Shanks
• 8 Lamb chops
• 8 Chicken Livers (for pate)

Should see us through to the weekend! I’ll have to save some and invite Jane BG around. Hinchcliffe’s Farm Shop is renowned round here and well worth the visit as you can see below. They are very happy butchers.

25th November, 2009

I’m sitting in Sainsbury’s carpark after going swimming. Pauline’s gone in to buy some mint sauce for dinner. I’m reading The Times and suddenly I hear a crunch. A scruffy, maroon car comes to rest against my bumper. Out steps a spotty youth who can’t stop saying sorry. I felt sorry for him, really. His car – which turned out to be his Mother’s car – had a small scratch. Mine had a small scratch above and below the bumper. It also damaged the numberplate and its mount. His car was already time-worn and, to him, it must have seemed like nothing. Our car was less than it was before he hit us and is valuable enough to maintain properly. We exchanged insurance details and he went back on his way to College. We went to Honda for assessment. The body man said, I can disguise the scratches for next to nothing but it won’t be the same. I advise a new bumper unit, a new numberplate and mount. We don’t have a price yet but it will come to something around £600.00 – £700.00. The lad’s Mother will think I’m taking them for a ride but it has to be done.

26th November, 2009

A cold, blustery and intermittently soggy day. After an hour or so swimming we prepare to drive over the Pennines to Oldham. Pauline’s Mum is still struggling badly. The shingles are still giving her awful headaches and making her very fed up. We are going to cook lunch for her in her flat. Lamb chops and mashed potato is all she can manage to eat. In fact, she struggles with one, small lamb chop because her appetite is really diminishing. Pauline made a lovely lunch and then her Mum settled down to watch Darling Buds of May. She has seen every episode at least three times but it is rather warm and comforting to live in a perfick world and she is watching it again. We left her to it and she was almost falling asleep before we got out of the door. She is spending more and more time sleeping now.

As we drove home, we had the wild Pennine Moorland in our eyes

but we still had her and her frailties in our hearts. Growing so old is no great fun if you become increasingly dependent. If she thinks of doing something, it doesn’t matter what the time-frame is, she has to do it straight away. When she was strong enough to travel, we only had to say to her in October that we would take her to Surrey in December and she would select her clothes and pack immediately. Her suitcase would be packed and under the bed for a couple of months. We received a Christmast card from her two weeks ago and a card for our 31st wedding anniversary on December 30th at the same time.

27th November, 2009

One of the things we have lost by retiring is that ‘Friday Feeling’, a phrase that  originated from a ‘Crunchy’ advert and used to sum up a host of feelings like: Thank Goodness for That’, ‘We can actually put our Life (Garden / House / Etc.) in order’. Friday night was eating out or Chinese Takeaway night depending on how tired we felt. It was probably two bottles of wine evening and general wind down evening. When the weekday constraints no longer pertain, the weekend loses a little of its edge. I still love Saturday sport and Sunday papers but the release of Friday evening is not quite the same.

We have found a way to put Feeling back in to Friday by making our morning trip to the Health Club the equivalent of going to work. We have to get up at 7.00 am each week day. We have to leave the house by 8.30 am and do a solid 30 mins swimming. In that time we complete circa 50 lengths of our 20 metre pool or one kilometre. We spend 10 – 15 minutes in the huge jacuzzi and about the same time again in the steam room. After that the day purrs. We only do this Monday – Friday so Saturday & Sunday are indulgence days restoring the demarcation by that Friday Feeling.

28th November, 2009

Pauline & I have always tried to avoid the crowds. We would always go to Sainsburys at 7.30 am on Saturdays when we were working just to avoid the crush. When we retired, we thought that we could access services off-peak and avoid the crowds. We were totally wrong. Sainsburys  at 11.00 am on a Wednesday is an absolute nightmare. It is jammed with old people who think doing the weekly shop is the social event of their week. They shuffle down the aisles and stand in groups chatting and blocking the way. They are slow in thought and slow in movement. After all, they’ve got all day and all week! We have reverted to Saturday at 7.30 am when like-minded shoppers zip around, grabbing items for their list and fight to be first out of the car park and on their way.

We set off today at 7.30 am in a blizzard of snow. It was 4C and thick with snow. Although it quickly melted around our house, all day the Pennines were covered in white.

Pauline’s Mum was unwell and Pauline went over to see her. They spent the day in hospital and Mum will not be home until tomorrow. Irritable Bowel Syndrome has been diagnosed. She was so dehydrated from constantly going to the loo that they are keeping her on a drip all night.

15th & 16th November, 2009

Spent the whole two days researching our trip to Kent. We are determined to have new-build and to have excellent facilities close at hand – Health Club, shops, restaurants, theatre/opera, etc. Pauline is quite keen to see the sea or be close to it as well. Hours and hours of Googling New Build Kent produced reams of Builders, Estate Agents and properties. I worked out an itinerary in best teacher fashion. On Tuesday we will drive down early and, in the afternoon, look at all the developments in Maidstone where we were staying followed by a trip down to Ashford, Folkestone, Hythe, Dover & Deal. On Wednesday, we will do the Medway towns of Rochester, Gillingham & Chatham followed by Sittingbourne. Pauline thought I was being optimistic.

17th November, 2009

We set off at 6.00 am up the M62 and down the M1. We had been told the weather would be foul – wet and windy. In fact, it was bright, beautiful and warm. There was little or no traffic. It was one of those occasions when cruise control works uninterrupted. Stopping only at Watford Gap for a revolting breakfast, we reached the Hilton Hotel, Maidstone by 10.00 am..

They don’t ‘check-in’ until 2.00 pm so we started straight in to our tour of the new build sites of Maidstone. Crest Nicholson, Bryant and Ward Homes. We toured Site Office with pushy sales woman (no men) after Site Office with pushy sales woman (no men) looking at badly built match boxes with ghastly decorations in much vaunted show homes.

Although the drive down had been wonderful and the optimism had been high, by the time we left our last Maidstone site, it was 3.30 pm and our spirits were on the floor. We hated everything we saw and everyone who showed them to us. We thought we were prepared for downsizing but there is a limit! The itinerary said we should go on to Ashford, Folkestone, Hythe, Dover & Deal. Our hearts said, No chance! We stopped at the nearest Sainsburys, bought a lovely bottle of red wine and some nuts and checked in to the hotel. We had booked a double room with breakfast. The gave us what they call a Double Double. This is a huge room with two double beds in it. In what circumstances would anyone want two double beds. I have led a very sheltered life and there may be certain positions that require two enormous beds but I am past all that. We drank our wine, ate our peanuts and watched Countdown.

We had dinner in the hotel and it was very pleasant. Our room was too. It had a settee and armchairs and a large, flatscreen television. There were coffee/tee making facilities and, although there were too many beds, the one we slept in was magical. There was a pool and gym, etc but we were too deflated to use it. We did, however, sleep like logs. During the night, a copy of tomorrows Times newspaper is slipped under the door.

18th November, 2009

Up at 7.00 am for breakfast. Normally, we have a huge cup of Breakfast tea and a plate of hot buttered toast (Pauline’s home made bread & home made raspberry jam) or we have porridge which I am really learning to like again. Neither of us can eat much at that time in the morning. Why does one’s constitution change, I wonder, when one wakes up in a hotel? Pauline washes her hair and dries it every morning of her life. It is 8.00 am before we get to the restaurant. A buffet breakfast of fresh fruit, fruit juice, bacon, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, hash browns (sic), black pudding and sausages is accompanied by slices of toast and completed by a couple of croissants with apricot jam.

We staggered out to the car and programmed the Sat. Nav. for Sittingbourne. More unmentionable houses that we were desperately trying to like built by Barratt, Bryant, Bovis, etc.. We drove on to Rochester trying to tell each other we had seen something worth coming for. The drive from Sittingbourne to Rochester was delightful – lots of fruit fields  and autumn trees, small villages and quaint old pubs.

That’s not what we want but at least we could relate to it. Rochester was impoverished and run down – much more than I had remembered or expected. Chatham wasn’t much better. We even went to Snodland but decided we couldn’t possibly live in a place called SNODLAND. We were fairly dispirited as we drove into the Sainsburys carpark in Maidstone for another bottle of red. We shared it sitting on the settee in our room with salted peanuts and watching Place in the Country. It’s a programme that retired people watch about retired people leaving their urban/city homes from which they have set out to work each day for the past 40 years and who now want to realise their rural idyll with a thatched roof, dark low beams, an Aga and enough land to keep chickens, pigs, llamas, etc..

Pauline & I want just the opposite. We have lived the rural life and we now want minimal, town life. We found a version of that but we didn’t want it made out of second hand Lego.

19th November, 2009

Another breakfast to contend with. We settled the bill and left Kent feeling quite fed up. (Us that is not Kent. Kent didn’t really express an opinion although a number of the sales staff at the site offices almost threw us out on the spot when we admitted our property was still on the market. We drove up to Surrey at about 10.00 am on an earily empty M25. We were going to stay the night with Pauline’s sister, Phyllis and her husband, Colin who retired down there to be near their daughter, Mandy (Director and General Manager Xerox Global Services) This is Phyllis and Pauline:

They live in West Byfleet and, out of idle curiosity and thinking we wouldn’t be able to afford anything there, I looked for new builds in West Byfleet. It threw up a couple of places and we called at the first one as we drove there for lunch. It was an apartment in a gated community with high tech security and covered courtyard parking. It was a two bedroomed apartment on the first floor with a lovely big lounge, a fully fitted kitchen, a good bathroom and an excellent en-suite. The whole apartment had underfloor heating. It was absolutely ideal if a little expensive for what we want to pay knowing that we would only be there for 6 months per year. It was within walking distance of two excelklent Italian restaurants, a Waitrose and a Sainsburys, a Health Club with a pool and is not far from a theatre. We would have bought it on the spot if we could but we need to sell our house and then, as a cash buyer, we will negotiate on the price – if the apartment hasn’t gone. There are ten left so we have a chance.

Mandy had a career break from a very high powered job and adopted three little boys from one family. They came from a drug addict in Newcastle. They are delightful but very tiring. They all attend private schools. David is now 11 and goes to a fee-paying Grammar School. James is 9 and is a very good rugby player. Daniel is 6 and he is currently having trials for Fulham F.C.. Yes, you read it right. He was spotted playing for his local little boys team. They like his aggression, apparently. He likes kicking other boys and why not?

20th November, 2009

We set off thinking it would be a bad journey back to the North. We expected terrible traffic and awful weather. We had neither. The M25 & M1 were wonderfully quiet at 8.30 am  although we did have to shield our eyes from the sun. We were back in Huddersfield for 1.00 pm. It doesn’t matter where one goes or wants to go, arriving home is delightful. And yet, what this week has taught us is that we consider nowhere particular home. We can be happy anywhere as long as the property is right. As soon as we got home, all the stress and tiredness of the past four days overwhelmed us. How do these travelling salespeople survive? Drive 200 or 300 miles and then bound enthusiastically in to a client meeting as if nothing had happened. Amazing.

21st November, 2009

Watched England lose to the All Blacks again. Pathetic! In a week when we have been away for four days we have still used 1.5 cm of water. I got an email from Jane BG this week to say that she only used 14cm in six months. I really do think I must be washing too much.