Sanders Blog

12th July, 2009

The Ashes Series has got off to a flying start. England manage a Draw.

13th July, 2009

All the big news. Had the car valeted today in preparation for Friday and THE OFF. It looks wonderful. The perlescent, black paint, the glass, the alloy wheels shone in the sun. The carpets looked pristine, the leather upholstery smelt like new. Only £45.00 for 4 hours work – a bargain.

Had to drive home fast before it rained!

14th July, 2009

We are in the final throes of preparation for departure. Unfortunately, one of the important ones for me is making sure I have the necessary medication with me. A trip to the doctor for a three month mountain of pills – all free – and this can be ticked off the list.

I should have told you that I had to lovely phone conversations with Ruth & Cal.  The more I learn about the relationships in our family, past and present, the more they appear dysfunctional to me. Haven’t heard from Mike. I texted him this morning.

10.00pm – Just got a text from Mike saying he’s on his way to Spain for a fortnight. He blames Angela for not telling him about my emails. The little sod!

15th July, 2009

Up early this morning. Out of the house by 8.00 am and off to Honda for our pre-holiday check. Every year Hepworth Honda of Huddersfield do a free, pre-holiday service before we go on our long journey. They check and top up the fluids, etc and always Bill it as ‘Long Standing Customer Bonus – £0.00. That’s why we always buy our cars from them.

Bought £1000.00 of Euros to get us through the journey. Arranged for neighbours, Margaret & Graham, to have a key and check the house until the middle of August when they go away and other neighbours, Perry & Jean, return from Spain and take over caretaker duties.

16th July, 2009

Cal sent me a photo of her next door neighbour.

17th July, 2009

House closed up for three months. Grey, wet day to set off to King George’s Dock, Hull. Goodbye cruel world!

18 July, 2009

Very rough crossing last night. Pauline was even feeling a bit sea sick. A strong gale and lashing rain lead to a mountainous sea and a rolling, crashing boat. Unfortunately, I slept right through it and even snored heavily which didn’t go down well with my fellow traveller!

After a hearty breakfast – for me, we set off in Zeebrugge at 9.30 am. The drive across Europe was brilliant and we were in Switzerland for 6.30 pm. This was a record. We were around Milano and past Bologna before it was midnight.

Did you know that Kevin Butcher’s changed his name to Kevan? Is he Welsh?

6th July, 2009

Last appearance at the anti-coagulant clinic this morning. I have arranged to be tested on Sifnos and to phone the results back to Huddersfield for dosage prescription. It is the baker on Sifnos who will do the testing. He is a trained chemist who worked in Brussels for a few years before returning to his native island to take over the family bakery.

7th July, 2009

Received a lovely email from Cal and one from Ruth. Cal sent me some great photos.

Cal has also sent me a mystery photo which will be featured on the front of the web this weekend.

8th July, 2009

Lovely day today. Pauline spent most of the morning packing huge boxes to be despatched by Parcelforce to our island. 60 kg of goods spread over three boxes costs £150.00 to get there in ten working days. It is the quickest and most effective way if they won’t fit in the car and they won’t.

Cal has sent me some wonderful photos again. One is of Grandad Coghlan’s early home area in Brighton. It led me to an account by a former resident who was there in 1917 – not much after Grandad. Cal has actually been there. She has also sent me a fantastic photo taken in Ireland in 2001 when Mum, Ruth & Kev went over to visit Cal .

9th July, 2009

Great swim today. Must have lost pounds. It was too wet to go Blackcurrant picking. The forecast is fine for tomorrow so we will go then. Our next door neighbours are going to Spain for five weeks tomorrow so I will also be cutting their lawns.

Caroline sent me this photo.The couple in the photo are Peter and Janet our second cousins. Peter is Grandad’s brother, William Michael Coghlan’s  son. Grandad was very fond of Peter and started to train him up in the antiques business but Peter went off all over the world to be a professional ice skater, Janet was a professional ice skater also. Janet and Peter live in Peacehaven.

July 10th, 2009

Raining again this morning. We’ve run out of time for any more fruit picking. It will have to wait for next year. Appointment at our Doctors. We have the most fantastic doctor in the world. She is so supportive. We are away for three months. I need three months medication. It all comes free and fills two shopping bags. It includes:

Amlodipine
Atorvastatin
Doxazosin Mesilate
Lossartan Potassium
Metformin Hydrochloride
Piogliatzone Hydrochloride
Warfarin

I have to have my blood cogulation index measured and phoned back to the Lab in Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

11th July, 2009

Trip to Leeds this morning. Took us about 20 minutes. On a work day it could be nearer an hour. Pauline went to Vidal Sassoons to have her hair done before we go away. She has had it cut short in the hope it might last three months. Short or long, it still costs £70.00. To compensate she saves on mine. I haven’t been to a Barber since 1969. After leaving home, I have always had mine cut by girlfriends and, for the past 31 years, by Pauline herself. Forty years of free hair cuts every five weeks – 10 per year – 400 hair cuts at an average of £10.00 per time. I have saved about £4000.00. On the same basis, Pauline’s had about 5 hair cuts a year over the past 31 years at, say an average of £50.00 costing me £7,750.00. If Pauline had let me cut her hair – which I would have done happily – I could have saved nearly £12,000.00 which would have bought me some lovely bottles of red wine.

28th June, 2009

Quiet day in the sunshine with the Sunday papers. Absolute bliss!

29th June, 2009

Lovely swim this morning. Bowl of porridge and checked email. Had one from Liz – we all did – making the same point Bob & Jane had done before that she was enjoying work and couldn’t envisage retiring. I am pleased for them all but my reply to Liz sums up my view:

“I’m afraid there is too much I want to do to go on working. I definitely did not want to die working. Mum had been trying to get me to retire almost since I was 50. She feared a repeat of Dad. I have no intention of dying young but, when I go, I would like to die picking peaches in my garden, sipping ouzo in a Peloponnese Ouzerie, meandering down the Grand Canal in Venice or sipping Espresso in Bologna or exploring the fish market in Marseille or touring the vineyards of the Dordogne or on my book signing tour of Great Britain or ……………. I may only have twenty five years left. Can I fit it all in?”

I hope my adventure will continue for years to come. I might go raspberry picking tomorrow.

June 3oth, 2009

Raspberry picking was off today because of rain. Inspite of this, the rain was very welcome. We have had no rain for about a fortnight and the Hostas are beginning to look distressed. Ruth told me she was celebrating her 37th wedding anniversary at the Rendevous Hotel in the beautiful market town of Skipton. I sent the hotel an email telling them about her wedding anniversary and asked them to pass on my best wishes. I was hoping they might give her a bunch of flowers or a bottle of champagne.

I was shocked to get an immediate reply from a worried Receptionist saying she had no record of the booking. I phoned Ruth on her mobile. She told me the website she had booked it through. I phoned the hotel receptionist who turned out to be a lovely girl. I gave her the details and she said she would sort them out with the website. I passed the hotel phone number on to Ruth & Kev who were travelling by bus ‘for an adventure’. I must admit I’ve had all the bus ‘adventures’ to satisfy me for a life time and the only ones I can tolerate now are airport shuttle buses.

1st July, 2009

White Rabbit! July began with a steamy 28C. A trip to Oldham to have Pauline’s Mum’s pacemaker checked, a lovely long swim at the Health Club and a spot of Wimbledon watching. All being well, tomorrow will be raspberry picking.

2nd July, 2009

True to our word, the wonderfully hot and sunny morning found us in Emley at 9.30 picking raspberries – about 8 kilos. It was an enjoyable experience which cost us £3.50 per kilo. Sainsburys charges £8.64 per kilo without the sunny field and sense of satisfaction.

Home for coffee and The Times. I did the Hoovering. (I know I should say vacuuming but I can’t get out of the habit). It even annoys me. It always used to drive me insane that Mum never went to see a doctor; it was always the ‘Doc’.. People didn’t drive a Mercedes; it was always a ‘Merc’.. And she always had a ‘spot’ of lunch. Don’t get me started on this because I could write a book on it. Even now I have only known two people describe cold weather as ‘chilly pom pom’ – Mum and a girl I once met who I ditched the moment she said it.

3rd July, 2009

Can you believe the date? I leave for Greece two weeks today. Next year, I will have been there for more than three months already.

4th June, 2009

On Monday we have to post boxes to Greece containing all the things we cannot fit in the car. We bear in mind the fact that, when we come back in October, we will only have four months until we return in March. So things that can be left until then will be. For example, I want to take a pressure washer but it will wait until next year. Essentials for this year include:

• Kitchen gadgets ( Food Processor, mandolin, potato ricer, meat mincer & sausage maker),
• Standard Lamp,
• Cases of wine,
• Gardening implements (spade, fork, etc.),
• Computer with monitor and scanner,
• Additional crockery,
• Food stuffs better bought in England (Breakfast & Assam tea, Columbian coffee, etc.)
• Additional clothes to refresh wardrobe
• Toiletries better or cheaper in England (soap, tissues, sun cream, tooth paste, etc..)

So today, we are preparing to have a practice pack of the car.

21st June, 2009

Had a couple of emails from Ruth today. She is a lovely sister to have. So understanding. She sent me a couple of photos which I will feature on the website this coming weekend but I will store here immediately.

This is Ruth, Joanne & Brandon. I can remember Joanne shuffling round the carpet on her bottom making a row aged about 18 months. How did she turn out so beautiful? Brandon looks a bit impish but Declan, eating crisps, looks a real hooligan. Thank goodness he wasn’t in my class. I would have retired even earlier.

22nd June, 2009

Quiet day – trip to Health Club for swimming, etc.. Buying trip for things we want to take to Greece: a food processor, a meat mincer and sausage maker, a blue flourescent tube insect killer, some wasp traps. We are beginning to worry about what we can get in the car this time. We will have to use Parcelforce again.

Spent some time developing a new page for the Website. This is just a ‘Favourites’ page away from home. It will sustain me in Sifnos.

23rd June, 2009

Got up at 2.00 am because our neighbour’s alarm was going off. They are in Greece. At any other time, Pauline & I would really have resented the break in our sleep but we suddenly realised as we walked round the outside of the house what a beautifully balmy night it was. The heady scent of honeysuckle wafting on the warm night air and the feeling that we could sleep in this morning without a problem. What freedom. The burglar alarm just stopped of its own volition. It must have sensed our contented and calming presence.

Had to give the pool a miss this morning because we don’t want to over train. Went out to buy more stuff for Greece. We needed a good CD player. We needed a new computer. PCWorld supplied both today.Massive shop – 2 customers.

24th June, 2009

Lovely day today. Went to see the Ophthalmologist. Got there right on time – 9.15 am. Unfortunately, I was a day early. Got to go back tomorrow. Went swimming. Pool completely to ourselves. It was lovely. Swam for half an hour followed by jacuzzi and steam room. Did another fifteen minutes swimming and then rushed off to Oldham. Pauline’s Mum had to go for a check-up. She got the all clear which is more than can be said for my friend, Brian, who looks as if he has Prostate Cancer. He is waiting for the results of his biopsy.

25th June, 2009

Went back to the Ophthalmologist today. Pauline and I were going to do a 10k run this morning but the specialist put drops in my eyes and it completely incapacitated me for the rest of the day. We went swimming instead. I’ll have to do the run next year.  Managed to mow the lawns later in the evening.

26th June, 2009

Strawberry picking on a beautiful sunny morning. We went to Bentley Grange Farm near Emley Moor mast.

This is a farm on land the history of which goes back to the 11th century and the Cistercian Monks of Byland Abbey, North Yorkshire. Their interest in the land was purely commercial – for iron ore. When the iron was spent, the land was turned over to agriculture and Bentley Grange derives from the Anglo Saxon description  – wild grass becoming grain. Nowadays it is fruit. This week – strawberries grown in long, grape vine type constructions with grow bags on waist high platforms and strawberry plants cascading huge ripe and clean berries straight to hand. We picked 20 lb in 20 minutes. Next week the raspberries will be ripe enough to pick and shortly after, we will go for blackcurrants. Pauline’s bread and homemade jam – just perfick!

27th June, 2009

Quiet day today – recovering from fruit picking.

This Blog is moving in to completion of half a year. I’ve never managed half a week of a diary before. With only five weeks to go until we leave for our Greek house – we will be away for circa 90 days this summer – this week will be spent making insurance arrangements.

• Our current house insurance only allows an absence of 60 days – need to renegotiate that.
• Our car insurance, has to be expanded to provide fully comp for three months abroad.
• Our travel insurance has to have the necessary health cover for this extended period.
• Car must be valeted and serviced.

We will send another box of items ahead of us by Parcelforce. We will take a few cases of white wine and pick up some more of red wine. Stavros is feeling rather down at the moment and he will need lifting. We are also taking a lot of gardening equipment with us this time.

17th June, 2009

Took Pauline’s Mum out for a meal at lunch time. We all ate too much but she was happy and vibrant as this photo shows:

Her cancer operation has really healed well. Pauline will kill me if she sees this photo because she’s not at her best but I think she looks happy and lovely.

Just 30 days until we set off on our trip across Europe to Sifnos. Nowadays we largely use our Sat. Nav. which comes with our car but this is the sort of route we follow:

As you can see it is 1464.7 Kilometres or 910.1 miles and, if driven continuously, should take 13 hrs 51 mins.. Because we stop to sleep and eat, it takes us 24hrs. Then we have to get a boat down the Adriatic which takes 20 hrs. Then we drive to Piraeus from Patras which takes another 3 hrs. Then we take a ferry to our island for another 6hrs. It is quite a journey and costs about £2000.00 return.

18th June, 2009

Today, we signed papers for our redundancy settlements and filled out Pension forms to take effect from August 31st. Although we are not working, we have three more salary cheques to receive. We have been very lucky to have spent the last five months of our service on fully paid gardening leave as well as another year’s salary in redundancy. To cap it all, we were told that we could have 35 year long service awards in cash – enough to buy a new desktop computer to take to Greece. We feel quite uncomfortably mischievous as we plan the next few years out.

Jane B.G. has got to me. Probably because she is so skinny. We have a month before we leave for Greece where we will swim twice a day for three months. We calculate that we will do 170 swims before we come back to England. We will go on one set walk every day – 85 walks – and then we will be developing our vegetable garden. Because of Jane B.G., we thought we would use our last four weeks here profitably so we have rejoined our local Spirit Health Club. We had been members for years but, in recent times, we found ourselves not getting there. I calculated last year that the swim we had in June had cost us nearly £800.00 we had used it so little. We decided to stop kidding ourselves and cancel our subscription. We became lapsed members. Today we joined just for 4 weeks, because that is all we have left, for an amazing price of £75.00 for the two of us. We went off for our first swim of the year. I did thirty minutes non-stop followed by a Jacuzzi and a Steam Room. I felt wonderful. About an hour after arriving back home the phone went and I panicked when I realised my legs wouldn’t work. Probably I’d brought my resting pulse down too much. I think I’ll have to pace my return to peak fitness.

19th June, 2009

40 years ago this Summer, I went to Training College. I shared an upstairs flat of a four storey house with two other lads who were Freshers as well. My College was for all girls – 650 of them – and the College had only just decided to take men – all 20 of them – a few weeks before I applied. On one of the few occasions Mum took me anywhere, we went up to Ripon in her car – I can’t remember which one now but it was the one after the Austin A40. She got Nellie Deacon to go with us because she didn’t want to drive home alone. She was still fairly inexperienced as a driver. I was the first one there because Mum was keen to get back before nightfall. There were two bedrooms, a single and a double. Guess who got the single bedroom! Later in the day the prospective occupants of the shared room arrived. Nigel Faulds from St Albans and John Ridley from Whitley Bay.

In the group photo, Nigel Faulds – who is now a Buddhist Monk by the way – is  standing back, extreme left with his arms folded. I am back, third from the right with my old friend, Kevin Dagg second from the right. For some reason, John Ridley didn’t get on this photo. Next to it is a recent one of him as Headteacher of a Primary School in North Yorkshire.

Leonard Cohen spent ten or more years as a Buddhist Monk – I think during the 80s and early 90s. I would never have heard from him if it wasn’t for Nigel who dragged me away from Cliff Richard and introduced me to sitting under the table, drunk as a skunk on red wine and howling to Leonard Cohen’s:

Like a Bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir,
I have tried in my way to be free….

The Leonard Cohen concert on TV last night transported me back 40 years. I had a tear in my eye for lost youth.

7th & 8th June, 2009

Set off for Surrey en route to the Tunnel. Stayed with Pauline’s niece, Mandy, and her husband, Kieron, adopted boys, David, James and Daniel. Also, of course, we met up with Pauline’s sister, Phyllis and her husband, Colin.

Phyllis is almost 72 and Pauline is almost 58 years old.

Phyllis has recently bought a Laptop and, in spite of her failing eyesight, is doing well in getting to grips with using it and, particularly, the internet.

Went out for an enjoyable family meal at Fox Hills Country Club – a resplendent establishment featuring a number of golf courses, indoor and out door pools, spas, tennis courts, restaurants, etc.. The original Ottersey Estate dates back to before the Norman Conquest. The latest and existing house was commissioned by MP Sir Ivatt Briscoe (on expenses as a second home) and designed by architect, George Bessier, cousin of Benjamin Disraeli. In 1923, the whole estate was bought by the Borthwicks who sold it on to Aer Lingus in the 1970s.

9th June, 2009

Left early in the morning for the tunnel. Usually we would be going in school half terms. This time, it was lovely and quiet.

We drove down to Auchan and bought £1200.00’s worth of wine for £600.00, some olive oil and mustard, some fresh meat and vegetables to put in the fridge in the back of our car and then found a nice restaurant for lunch. Back to the train with a rather heavier car and 30 minutes later we are hoofing it back up the country to Yorkshire.

10th June, 2009

Quiet day today after our exertions of the past few days. Don’t want to overdo it. Had to unpack the car and put all the wine into racks around the garage walls. Actually, some of it stayed in cases because it will be coming to Greece with us in five weeks time. If you’ve ever tasted Greek wine you would know why. England win 6-0 against Andorra. You wonder if it was worth it.

11th June, 2009

Ronaldo is no more. It is a loss to the Premiership. £80,000,000.00 should make up for it.

12th June, 2009

Heaven has come to Huddersfield! Sainsburys has opened a new store. It is less than ten minutes away by Formula 1 car and is a delight.

Pauline & I are brand-loyal. In the past 30 years we have had a new Honda car every year, been to Greece once if not twice each year and spent more than £100,000.00 in Sainsburys. How do I know? Pauline has recorded every single penny of expenditure from day one of our marriage. In the first three years she meticulously kept accounts books, cross-referencing them with paper bank statements. Shortly afterwards, she started to use a financial software package and cross referenced it with Nat West on-line which I tested for the bank.  We can tell you how much we have paid out to any retailer over the past thirty years at the press of a button. It doesn’t get much sadder than that.

31st May, 2009

White Rabbit Day tomorrow. Also back to school day for so many. By Sunday, we would be feeling distinctly fed up and looking for any reason why we shouldn’t go. Not any more. We are planning a trip to France the week after next. When we come back, we will do a day strawberry picking at our local strawberry farm followed by a day’s raspberry picking. Pauline will make brilliant jam. Instead of moping about tomorrow, we went for a drive on the moors.

Below you will see shots of the road we took for so many years to work. It is the old, pre-motorway, cross-pennine route. In the summer we would drive this road and the motorway in the winter. The landscape here looks as if a giant had grabbed the moorland and squeezed it in his hand. It is left in crumpled folds, carpeted in lush green grass and crimson and white flowering heather. Occasionally, the rock breaks through the surface. The eye would never tire of it.

1st – 3rd June, 2009

While the country has been obsessing about Hazel Blears’ expenses and Brown’s likely successor, I have been pruning Laurel bushes in to ball shapes, manicuring the lawns, trimming the edges, all the finishing touches needed to make our house saleable. It has now officially gone on sale. We have tried to set a realistic price so we don’t find ourselves still stuck here this time next year. Apparently, the neighbours have been monitoring the regular visits of tradesmen – painting and decorating, windows and doors, carpets and curtains. They have been observing Pauline & I cleaning the windows, sweeping the patios, mowing the lawns, weeding the flower beds. They have said to themselves, “I bet they’re moving!” Today their supicions were confirmed as the official ‘For Sale’ board went up.

We were just having lunch and cheering at the news of Hazel Blears resignation when we heard a banging outside. Pauline jumped up and screamed when she saw a man banging a post into our front garden. “They’re selling our house”, she shouted. We madly set about tidying the house in case someone called to see it. They didn’t.

Had a lovely email from Cal telling me that she was going back to work and sending me some more photos:

An Irish Tent

Irish Cannabis

The Irish Pyrenees

It just looks lovely. I can’t wait to drop in on her unexpectedly.

4th June, 2009

As a traditional grumpy old man, I have long been the bane of the Kirklees Environmental Health Department. They like to think that they are at the cutting edge of Waste Disposal. They try to enforce sorting of waste by their customers so that they can sell the materials on in a profit making concern. They give us two coloured wheelie bins, green and black – and each is collected once a fortnight on alternative Thursdays. I refuse to have a dog and bark. Who has got the time to separate rubbish? Well, Dustbin Men (and Tramps) of course. We pay them an enormous precept each year from which we cannot derrogate. Of course, the bottom’s fallen out of the waste material market which is really putting a strain on the SITA spreadsheet.

5th June, 2009

Apparently it is Friday. I spent the whole of yesterday thinking it was Friday. I even went to the extent of ordering a takeaway for tea to recreate that ‘Friday Feeling’. Never mind, I shall have to try all over again today.

We drove over the Pennines to Saddleworth to the Whit Friday Brass Band Contest. I have lived in the area since 1972 and this is the first time I have been free to watch it. It involves bands from all the communities travelling from village to village playing their brass band music to the local population and being judged. There are ten or so individual competitions. Really, it is a good excuse to get together and share a drink in all the lovely Pennine pubs. For some reason, although it is always on Whit Friday, it is invariably dodgy weather. After days of glorious sunshine and high temperatures, today was cooler and changeable. Everybody started off drinking in the pub gardens but as the music started so the clouds darkened. Fortunately, most of the competitions were finished before the heavy rain set in.

The house officially went on sale yesterday. Today we had a car trawl slowly past and back, checking it out. Why didn’t they just come in and offer us the full asking price? It would make life so much easier.

6th June, 2009

Leeds and Manchester Airports are not far away. Flights are rare enough to be more of interest than annoyance. We did get a bit annoyed when a helicopter flew back and forth low over our house the other day. Within a few hours we had a knock at the door and a woman appeared holding a framed, colour aerial photo of our house. She wanted £12.00 for it. Normally, I would have sent her away with a flee in her ear as all the other neighbours did but, on this occasion, I bought.

This photo will go to Greece and join photos of all the houses Pauline and I have lived in together mounted above the oak settle from Oldham Town Hall. The irony of that ending its life on a Greek island really appeals to me.

24th May, 2009 

Beautiful day – hot and sunny. Managed to get good outdoor shots of the house and garden to email off to the Estate Agency.

25th May, 2009

Another lovely day, perhaps not as sustained sunshine as yesterday but it is a Bank Holiday. What does that mean when you’re retired?  Had a lovely phone conversation with Ruth yesterday evening. Talking to her made me feel happy. I love her. I have gone about the day today with Ruth in my head. I must see her before we leave for Greece.

Pauline’s Mum and sister Phyllis and her husband Colin came round for Lunch today. Pauline cooked Lamb Shanks in Red wine Jus with Jersey Royals and assorted vegetables. It was absolutely wonderful. We used this occasion to talk about our plans and how we would provide for Pauline’s Mum.

27th May, 2009

Kerb Appeal is the order of the day today plus the oven-clean little man called. Two hours it took him. He was out of breath when he’d finished – all the running up and down our twenty stone steps I’ve no doubt. You’re not very fit, I said, as Pauline paid him. I’ve got to drive to Holmfirth now and Tomorden this afternoon, he gasped as he left. I offered to put him in touch with Jane BG in order to get his pulse rate down but he said he hadn’t got time. Well it is difficult when you’re working!

I’ve been planting‘Gold Splash’ Euonymous to provide some eye-catching kerb appeal at the front of the house. I think they will make all the difference.

28th May, 2009

Attended the funeral of Angela aged 92 years today. I went with Pauline, her Mum, Pauline’s sister, Phyllis and her husband, Colin. It was a sad and under-attended affair for a lady who had outlived most of her friends and relatives. We moved Pauline’s Mum into the Anchor Housing warden assisted apartment 28 years ago. She was 67 years old. She is 95 in a few weeks. Angela moved in to an apartment 3 years later and they were inseparable for 25 years. Angela had an alcoholic son who visited her once a week for his tea on a Friday. He is in his mid-60s and spends most of his time in Thailand. Angela was very timid, found it very difficult to go out and, although we managed to get her out for a pub lunch once or twice a few hundred yards from her flat, she flatly refused to travel the 15 miles to our house for Christmas Lunch even though she was alone. Her husband died 35 years ago and she had soldiered meekly on since then. In the past few months – rather like Mum – she began to give up the will to live. She stopped eating, started to stay alone in her flat and became terribly thin. Eventually she went to hospital to be treated for a chest infection and never returned. Another little personality has left the world. Her claim to fame, I learnt at the funeral, was that she worked in the Pickle Factory in Fleetwood where she was born and living in that important fishing port, she hated fish. We all have our moments.

29th May, 2009

Glorious day today. Just enjoyed it.

30th May, 2009

Disappointing win for Chelsea. Have to admit that they were the better side. Glorious day again. Spoke to Stavros today. He is finally getting the log burning stove stainless steel exhaust pipe fitted and the huge pergola over the outdoor dining patio. We go in seven weeks. I can’t wait.

Caroline’s Birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Cal. As you can see, Cal gets very wrapped up in the region she inhabits. She speaks Irish and worships Newcastle United.

18th May, 2009

Got an email from Jane today. She’s been on this madcap scheme to raise money for Breast Cancer – The Moon Walk – She sent me this picture after she had finished. She said she was off to a Health Spa to recover.

This is what I wrote to her:

Thought you were supposed to be in your underwear. Pauline’s niece, Mandy, was doing the same walk. She’s off to a Spa today as well. It’ll be full of women with sore feet and jogger’s nipple. You could all have saved yourselves a lot of pain and donated your Spa costs instead.

I thought that was fair.

Got this other photo – at last – of Jane Georghiou. Only the top half. I don’t know if she’s self conscious about her legs. You notice she’s so green she even chooses the correct colour car as a backdrop. I have tried to give her some brotherly advice about using up her lifetime’s supply of heartbeats and footsteps before she’s ready to go but on she runs and what is that she’s holding? Ugh! Can’t be good for her. Come in No. 245 and put your feet up with a good glass of wine.

19th May, 2009

For a week our cooker – a double built in AEG – has been turning itself on at strange times. 11.30 pm I was just setting the burglar alarm when the oven flicked into life. Again 2.30 pm it did the same thing. We thought we must have accidentally set the automatic timer when we put the clock forward. I reset everything. It made no difference. We have a service agreement on the oven so we called a little man out but we had forgotten this when, at 11.00 am today, two big, red fire engines roared into Quarry Court and stopped right outside our house. At that moment, the little oven man arrived in his car thinking, “Oh no! I’ve got here too late. It’s set the house on fire.” Fortunately for us but not for our next door neighbour, it turned out that her dishwasher had started to throw flames out of its door and she panicked and called the fire brigade.

Our little man couldn’t stop shaking as he told us he would have to order a new thermostat for our oven. Before he comes back, we’re going to get another little man in to clean it.

20th May, 2009

Got a cheeky message from Ruth asking why I didn’t clean the oven. It’s filthy. I am a tired old pensioner and this little man has been coming to clean our oven twice a year for the past nine years. I wouldn’t be so heartless as to begrudge him employment. Besides, for £50.00 he gets the oven, which is six years old, looking better than when we bought it. It takes him three hours or so. He dismantles it and takes each section down to his van parked on our drive where he has a bath of caustic soda to dip things in plus a steaming hot vat of soapy water which just does the job. I couldn’t do anything like that.

Can’t quite decide if Cal is building the Cath Bennett Wing or the Lily Coghlan Wing or two wings each by those names. However, she is a big girl doing a big job as you can see from this photo:

22 May, 2009

Estate Agent called today confirm House would go on the market at just under £400,000.00. The brochure was ready apart from the detailed floorplans and the photographs. The Hip will not be ready for another ten days and it can’t be advertised until it is. My camera was much better than the Estate Agent’s so I was delegated to take photos and email them to him. Sunday looks like being a very sunny day so I hope to take the photographs then. In the meantime, I have been practising.

Which shot of the lounge looks best? Answers on an email.

23 May, 2009

More photographs today plus we received the draft of the brochure. The agents appear very enthusiastic and optimistic about selling reasonably quickly. If they do – and we are trying to separate the sales pitch from reality – we may have to cut our long holiday short and/or fly home temporarily in order to settle our affairs and find storage for our furniture. We bought this house as a trade-down almost exactly nine years ago. We always said it was ‘just somewhere to live’ and that we would not get attached to it. However, not only has it proved a good investment but we have grown to really enjoy it. Still, got to move on!

We have three different Estate Agents coming to the house this week. Everything that could reasonably be done has been done. There is talk of a pick up in the housing market in our area. We have been to look at two different development sites and both had virtually sold out. Whether that is down to price adjustment or rising market is impossible to tell. We remain optimistic.

Cooked a wonderful meal tonight of belly pork served with Jersey potatoes, asparagus and carrots. What a wonderful place this world can be. Hope the girls enjoyed their trip to The Boot Inn.

11th May, 2009

Estate agents coming tomorrow. I’ve booked three in. Put the finishing touches to the House and garden today. Mowed the lawns. It nearly killed me. Must get a little man in next time.

Phoned Mike. He didn’t reply at first. When he did, half an hour later, he said I was interupting his game of Bridge.

12th May, 2009

Valuation Day! The day is dry, warm and sunny. The house is neat and gleaming like a new pin. The first valuer arrived from Brearley Green. It was the Managing Director – Peter Green – in his big Mercedes who drew up outside the house. Having had the most cursory look round at break neck speed, he announced that he hadn’t got a clue how to value it because nothing in our vicinity had gone on the market for at least five years. He said he was taking a stab in the dark and quoted a figure that was so below our expectation that it depressed us immediately. The next valuer cam from Reeds Raines. He measured everything minutely and after careful consideration of other properties in the area, suggested a figure which was £75, 000.00 more than the first valuation. His charge for selling would be 1%. The final valuer came from Halifax Estate Agency. They had proved the pushiest and most determined to win our business. The valuer was equally thorough and suggested a price some £85,000.00 more than the intial valuation. She told us her selling fee would be 1.8%.

14th May, 2009

Decided to go with Reeds Raines but only after a lot of uncertainty. They are a national company who pitched the value at more or less what we anticipated. We felt the Halifax might have inflated the value to get the business. The cost of selling through the Halifax would be double that of Reeds Raines which was a partial incentive. We have to have a HIP before we can even advertise our house but the Estate Agents will do that tomorrow. It will take ten days before it is published. We think we will struggle to sell the house before we go to Greece in mid-July so the agents will have to continue in our stead. They say they are comfortable with that and will keep in touch over the web. What a wonderful world.

16th May, 2009

Great day today. United won the Premier League and Leicester Tigers won the RU Premiership title.