Month: February 2025

Sunday, 16th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, 17th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, 18th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, 19th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, 20th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, 21st February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, 22nd February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, 9th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, 10th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, 11th February, 2025

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

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

― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, 12th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, 13th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, 14th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, 15th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, 2nd February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, 3rd February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, 4th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, 5th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, 6th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, 7th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, 8th February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, 26th January, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, 27th January, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, 28th January, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, 29th January, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, 30th January, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, 31st January, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, 1st February, 2025

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

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

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

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

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