Sunday, 11th January, 2026
Bloody Sunday! Don’t you just hate them. Silent as the grave. Dull and grey but mild. Boring. Let’s get on with the world again even though it’s a nightmare at the moment.
The world is on fire. The old order is being challenged like it hasn’t been since World War 2. Instability is the order of the day and it doesn’t feel comfortable. I have lived my life, we have lived our lives, Dear Reader, under a long period of peace. Yes, we have seen off the Cold War, the ‘Troubles in Ireland’, al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and they were significant in localised ways but Global Geopolitics have never been so fractious in my lifetime.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The Second Coming – William Butler Yeats
The lines above were written by the Irish poet in the immediate aftermath of World War 1 and at the start of Irish War of Independence. His world was much smaller then. Today, the same feeling prevails but it is difficult to be optimistic about any part of the World.
- Iran and Israel compete for dominance of the Middle East with Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and Yemen in the mix.
- Expansionist Russia currently seeks to regain Ukraine but has its sights set on the whole Baltic region and extends that in to EU Europe and out via Denmark to Greenland.
- China claims sovereignty over Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong based on historical precedence. It’s interest in Greenland is strategic.
- Geopolitics in South Asia is undergoing a sharp turn. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh tensions are constantly inflamed. Currently, Geopolitics in South Asia are undergoing a sharp turn. Bangladesh has increasingly viewed India as an adversary while leaning towards Pakistan, the very nation from which India helped liberate it in 1971.
- USA expands into South America, threatening Venezuela and into North America threatening Canada and into Europe threatening Denmark and Greenland. In The Middle East, it threatens Iran, Syria and Gaza.
I’m thinking of turning our Garage-cum-Gym into a drone-free bomb shelter. At least it’s got a year’s supply of red wine. I’m going out there to hide now anyway. Unfortunately, the Drama I am watching is centred on an America in the grips of its own self- aggrandisment. Art and Life are intimately intertwined, Dear Reader. Happy Sunday!
Monday, 12th January, 2026
A (relatively) warm, grey morning. Alexa defined my day at 6.00 am by announcing,
John, Today your calendar has one event. Black Bin to put out.
I have to admit, my heart sank a little. Does putting out the bin urge you to get up in the half light on a Monday morning, Dear Reader? It is only my determination and/or stupidity that forced me out into the day.
You have to see all things in perspective. When I was working, I longed for such days to be free to indulge myself. Now, it almost seems like a reproach for being old. I began to think about perspectives in life as I shaved. It is the pin pricks of time that help us see the relevance of the Now. Two, specific ones came to mind as I brushed my teeth. Yes, Dear Reader, I still have teeth. All the better to …. But then you know the children’s fable.
I have picked 1891 – just 60 years before I was born – and 1973 when I was 22 years old. There are many others but these two points explain to me at least who I am. I was born into a fairly insular, East Midlands village of Repton where my Grandfather and Father ran the family firm of Builders – Sanders & Son. I was the product of a strange union between an Atheist and a Roman Catholic; between a village boy and a city of London girl; between a fairly dour and unassuming architect and a pretentiously snobby, articulate artist.
Mum had quickly bought into the prestige of being in a long established village family of entrepreneurs with its extensive antecedents in the Methodist Chapel, Parish Council and Parochial entertainment. It was almost as if she felt grounded, established and complete. It was a union of which D.H.Lawrence would feel vindicated.
So, my first point of perspective is in my discovery of the Mill that brought my ancestors to Repton village when they bought and took over the mill in the mid-19th century. By 1958, it was in ruins and deserted. It has always hidden in my memory but only made sense when I discovered the true extent of my family’s involvement in and contribution to the locality of my birth. I was amazed to find that my Great Grandparent’s gravestone was in the village graveyard at St Wystan’s church. My parents never mentioned them.
Richard, who had started a Carpentry & Coffin-making business and his wife, Anne, both lived to 70 years old, dying in 1891 & 1898 when my Grandfather took over the business and expanded the firm into a Building and Construction one. He built the house where I was born and referred to in this book – Repton Remembered as Nos. 81 and 83 in Repton Square.
So I was produced by a fairly monosyllabic East Midlander completely grounded in his locality and an articulate and Arty Southerner looking for establishment, acknowledgement and belonging. I have a lot of my father’s doggedness, determination and grit but even more of my Mother’s articulacy, creativity and self-awareness. Like my father, I eschewed Religion. Like my Mother I always wanted to express myself. Unlike my father, I was desperate to leave the confines of village life and move to the South of my mother.
I know this is a long – too long – post and that you will have left me long ago, Dear Reader, but for my sanity I will press on. From the first half you will easily see why the second has such relevance. In 1973, I met James Joyce and A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. It was me! He was describing ME! I couldn’t believe it. I don’t read books. I never read books other than for study or for teaching. I was teaching Advanced Level English Literature for the first time and what should be prescribed for me but This.
I was feeling quite vulnerable, empty and lost at the time. I was beginning to write – poetry mainly – but this book describes Stephen Dedalus, a boy growing up in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, as he gradually decides to cast off all his social, familial, and religious constraints to live a life devoted to the art of writing. I had cast off my family, my pretence at religion, my social connections and was living in a hovel in a faded Northern mill town. My father was dead as was his. His mother despairs of him and his rejection of the Catholic faith just as mine did.
One of the defining characteristics of the novel’s rising action is the pattern of following a triumph or epiphany at the end of each chapter by a deflation of that success at the beginning of the next, and this structure models the way in which Stephen’s perspective adapts over time. Of course, Stephen’s surname was not chosen acidentally. Dedalus is Daedalus – the cocky boy who flew too close to the sun and crashed and burned. The story of my life I fear.
Tuesday, 13th January, 2026
A dark morning of heavy rain. It’s going to be an indoors day. I will be in the Gym for a couple of hours but first I’ve got jobs to do. Chef is busy in her domain making soup in the kitchen and I have some Office jobs. First I have to contact my new best friend, Clarisse from St Omer in France where she did an M.A. in Cinematography. Who is Clarisse and how did I meet her?
Well, we bought our kitchen bin from Simple Human. As bins go, it is quite pleasant and cost about £120.00. We bought one 4 years ago and the 2 year warranty was just up when the mechanism broke. I ordered another one and, guess what, after just over 2 years, the bin is not working. I could have rented the bin from them at £1.00 per week and still broken even. The problem is, I recently bought 2 more years supply of their bin bags to fit so I am going to have to buy another one. I thought Simple Human should help me with that so I wrote to them.
Goodness knows why but Clarisse works for their Customer Support Department. She wrote back to me asking for a video of the bin working. The above clip is a love letter to Clarisse. I tried to impress her with my expertise. You see how sad and bored I am.
I’m listening to Chopin again. Never a good sign, Dear Reader. It makes me moody and sad. This Nocturne OP.9 reflects the scene outside and will fill the void that is a wet Tuesday in January.
I’m doing really exciting things now. Contacting the Bowel Screening Programme to request new tests which cease automatically by age 74. They are due in May and I’m 75 in April. I will probably have to pay for a colonoscopy next year at the 3 year anniversary of my last one although I will put the squeeze on my Doctor for an NHS one.
I don’t know what you think about new cars at the moment. I want one every other week never mind every year. My current car, a Honda Self charge Hybrid, is 15 months old and has done a huge 5,000 miles. I had intended to buy a Plug-in Hybrid next time but the current climate is suggesting I should wait. I love my Honda. It is delightful to drive but in an idle moment I have found myself casting round for an alternative. I’m quite taken with the Mercedes GLC all electric.
What I have found is that there are a number of major car manufacturers who are on the brink of collapse and at the head of this group is Nissan which would prove a major headache for UK plc. They tried to get Honda to take them over but Honda found the business wasn’t viable and pulled back. It looks like the writing is on the wall.
To show you how bored I am today, I leave you with a mug shot. I never drink from mugs. We don’t have any in the house by command. I know I am odd but I love cups and saucers. I went through my whole teaching career using a cup and saucer while all around me had their mugs. I found this one quite funny though. You have to give it a minute before you ear it.
Wednesday, 14th January, 2026
The sun is up. The sky is blue. I’ve got a new bin coming too. My new girlfriend, Clarisse, was so impressed with my film that she is sending me a replacement bin immediately. That’s £120.00 saved. What a lovely girl! Actually, she told me the bin had a 10 yr Warranty so I can keep replacing them every two years forever. All it takes is a little bit of effort and a hint of friendliness
I’ve had to order some new ear buds for my iPad and phone. I lost my current ones I think in the airport. I’ve been trying to get on with headphones but they are just too clumsy and uncomfortable. I like the lightness and noise cancelling of in-the-ear buds so Amazon are sending me some today which is nice of them.
My wife copes with Chopin played at high volume from the Office but I need to keep it from people in hotels or on planes and blue tooth earbuds are the best for me. I’ve got 8 flights booked for this year already and passing the time by watching downloads from Netflix is proving really helpful. Earbuds will allow me to do that.
Had to go down to the fish supplier near the beach this morning and everywhere felt like Spring – warm, sunny, windless and joyful. I paid with my phone a bill of £220.00. I don’t even think about it anymore. I never carry cash or cards. I do everything digitally through my phone. High speed broadband is available everywhere now. Even the Fishermen’s shed has it and can process a digital payment.
I, for one, am disappointed that the Digital Identity Card is not going to be universally rolled out as announced today. It will come and it won’t be long. Life is becoming too complicated without it.
Thursday, 15th January, 2026
It is warm but dark and wet – very wet – this morning. You wouldn’t want to go out unless you had to. Unfortunately, I do. I have an appointment at the Sussex Eye Hospital.
I said before that I was born with the sight in my left eye so thoroughly impaired that I can’t see anything but strong light sources. I can’t see people, or anything other than hazy shapes. I certainly couldn’t read or write or watch TV, etc with just that eye. It meant that all through my youth there was a fear that my predeliction to play Rugby and fight a lot would result in my ‘good’ eye being damaged and I would be blind.
I’ve stopped playing Rugby and fight a lot less but I still worry as soon as I get grit in my eye because it temporarily impairs my vision and shows me what it would be like if things went wrong. I had a real panic about 25 years ago when I got up one morning, opened my newspaper (That takes you back.) and I couldn’t read the text. I was sent for an eye test which revealed that a blood vessel had burst in the back of my eye. Fortunately it self repaired over a few hours but I have been monitored twice a year since then.
My check in December was absolutely clear. Excellent eye sight in the chart reading test and no sign of Diabetic Rhetinopathy. However, having happily skipped out of the Hospital, I was disappointed to receive a letter informing me that, on closer analysis of the negatives, a change at the back of the eye had been identified and I would need to attend an Opthalmic Consultant’s clinic for further assessment. That’s where I’m going with some trepidation today. Wish me luck, Dear Reader.
At least they won’t be calling me up for the military as our next fighting force is prepared for World War III. A one-eyed geriatric? No chance.
Well, I am currently sipping a glass of champagne having come home from the Eye Hospital. It is a brand new facility that I was grateful to be seen in. I was met by a Chinese Nurse who put me through a full sight test. With my right eye, I could read every line of the chart. With my left eye, I could not see the chart at all or the Nurse. I had drops put in my eyes. About ten minutes later, I was seen by a lovely chap from Napoli. He scanned my eyes while we discussed my route through Italy to Greece and food we both liked from the country.
I was passed on to the Consultant – a lovely, tiny Vietnamese man – who I took to immediately. He told me that I had been referred to him because the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinic were worried about my left eye. I immediately relaxed because that has been useless to me since birth. They thought I had a detached retina which I only know about because boxers suffer from it. It turns out that I haven’t. All is as it should be. No cataracts either.
What a lovely day. I thought I would share it with you, Dear Reader. I am so relieved. I can see clearly now even though it’s still raining.
Friday, 16th January, 2026
Lovely warm and sunny morning. Woke up thinking how lucky I was after the wonderful news about my eyes yesterday and about the delightful people who I’d met in providing the service. Only one member of NHS staff was native English and that was the Receptionist. Every one of the Medical Staff was foreign. They could not have been more pleasant and, although initially a little reticent, the moment I showed an interest in where they were from, they talked enthusiastically about their homeland. Our Health Service would collapse without them so a Reform vote could be a very dangerous thing. They would prefer us to go for an insurance-based payment system anyway.
I have a mobile contract with EE giving me 2 smartphones and 2 mobile numbers each with unlimited calls, texts and data including European roaming. The 2 yr contract currently costs me 2 x £85.00 = £170.00 per month for the 2. The smartphones are ‘free’ with the monthly payment. Over 24 months they have cost me £4,080.00 but when I get to the end of the contract they are my property and I am entitled to 2 new phones on my contract.
I have 2 Samsung S24 Ultra mobiles and I will be given an upgrade to the next model – Samsung S25 Ultra. It won’t be massively different to look at. The corners are rounded off which I prefer but the chip inside is much quicker in processing everything and the main camera goes from 8MP to 50MP Ultra Wide Camera, 200MP Wide-angle Camera and 50MP/10MP Telephoto Camera. Readers of the Blog will know that it has moved on from all (too much) text to quite a lot of (too much?) illustration. The phone camera is important to me almost as much as the ability to make and receive calls.
For months, EE have been bombarding me with suggestions of ‘free’ early upgrades. What they don’t say but what I know is that they are afraid I will leave them in February when my contract is up. They also don’t say although I know it, if I upgrade early, I have to send my current smartphones back to them in exchange. They think I’m mad. The 2 new phones would cost me 2 x £1350.00 = £2,700.00 if I had to buy them but now I can sell the old ones for around 2 x £500.00 = £1000.00 to offset my monthly bill reducing it by £41.60 a month over the life of the contract.
Things do change so much over time. Since my last mobile contract, I have got rid of my landline. I was interested to read that BT are upgrading all landlines to internet based over the next few months. I haven’t missed my line at all. I used to live with my iPad in my hand. I still have one but now it is my phone I live with in my hand. I am communicating with friends all day even though they are mainly still in the North of England.
My photo Memory Box threw up pictures from a snowy North of England on this day last year, a house in Surrey where M&K had almost destroyed two Christmas Cakes before flying back to Florida 3years ago and M with P&C in Florida just 4 years ago.
Clarisse has been true to me because she’s that type of girl. The new bin has arrived and is accompanied by a 10 year warranty. Just realised, I will be almost 85 before I have to buy another one. I’ll make a note on my on-line calendar.
Saturday, 17th January, 2026
Lovely, bright and warm morning. It’s one when Alexa has announced that I have no commitments. What am I going to do. Well, I’ve been talking to my old friend and Digs-mate, John Ridley about South Korea where he spends lots of time. Did you know that South Korea has the world’s lowest birth rate other than the Vatican City and I think that’s debatable. I keep telling myself that I should go out there and meet him but I can’t quite get up enough enthusiasm – for the country not my friend.
I am booking a couple of short trips to France – one in March and another in May. They will be mainly wine-buying trips but we can hope to fit in a few places to walk in the Spring sunshine as well. I want to get our identities established on the new, Schengen Visa for non-members. It involves face and finger print scan just like the American ESTA. When I go the first time, I will be still 74 but by the second visit, I will have reached ¾ century.
I becoming more and more obsessed with age and achieving all the things I have to do before it’s too late. I look back at my younger self and think of all the things I could and should have done better. It was a different time as all the signs illustrate but it is still close enough to try to understand.
At least United have rediscovered some old, original spirit this afternoon. Well worth waiting for.
Sanders Blog 