Sunday, 8th February, 2026
My records show that this week in 2009 – 17 years ago when I was just 57 years old and living in Yorkshire while working in Lancashire – we were suffering with incredibly heavy snow which shut the school for a week and even the M62 for a while. During this week I was diagnosed with a heart murmur (Atrial Fibrillation) which I had never heard of and, unbeknown to us, we were just 2 months away from Retirement.
Even so, we were preparing to spend Easter in our Greek island home and I was about to buy a revolutionary new digital Book Reader for my wife. It was her first of many Kindles and they are central to her reading all these years on. So many things have changed but that is one that hasn’t.
It was a time of turmoil in our lives. We had just gone through what turned out to be our last Ofsted. We had contracted a firm to replace every single window and external door in our 3-storey house over the coming month. Suddenly, my lovely Mother-in-Law was taken into hospital again after a fall.
All that going on in a few weeks of one’s life is a test and one that we came through strongly but I clearly recall the inner strength it demanded. Last week I was writing of the Past, Present, Future approach to the understanding of Life. I found this record of my times in 1968. I was still at school and playing Rugby in the Staffordshire Championships. This newspaper report above was in my Mother’s records. It was a time when I was aware I was suffering from a flutter in my heart beat but thought it was just over exertion. It could have killed me any time over the ensuing 40 years.
To think that, over the past 17 years, of the people who have died, of the houses I have sold and bought and of the total transformation in my life moving from North to South.You know, there are still people working in the latest iteration of my school who were there when we left. Yesterday, I was wishing a lad happy birthday who I appointed as an IT technician 20 years ago. Now, he is Leader of the Digital Curriculum Team with a group of teachers under him. He’s still only 44. If I can manage 17 more years, I will be 91. That’s not too much to ask. Is it?
Monday, 9th February, 2026
Lovely warm and sunny morning. Makes a change. Haven’t got to swim for our lives today, anyway. I’m expecting a phone consultation from the Urological Cancer Department who will outline the ongoing monitoring of my post-prostate cancer situation. I’m hoping that the NHS will take it up for a few more years. Otherwise, I will be turning to the Private Sector for biennial scans which I will feel uncomfortable about not least because the same NHS Consultant will charge me money. I am preparing my arguments in advance. There is no question we have to advocate for ourselves because no one else will.
I’ve been on statins for 20 years. I have suffered absolutely no side effects or none that I haven’t been able to attribute to other reasons. I get quite bad cramp occasionally. It is a statin symptom but it could easily be because of my Gym work. I feel the cold a bit more theses days – another symptom – but it could easily be because of my age or as a result of radiotherapy. I like to think they have kept me alive and that I didn’t fall in to the Right Wing trope of the anti-vaxxers and anti-medication nerds.
You know that 10 years ago this week, we had arrived back from two months in Tenerife and our new house was 4 weeks away to completion. We were charging round arranging for beds and sofas to be delivered. We were driving up to Housing Units in Failsworth to check out the dining furniture and Hilary was coming round to fit the new blinds. I was anticipating receiving my first State Pension in a couple of weeks. We were about to join David Lloyd Health Club.
Ten years on and under the constant daylight glare of the conservatory windows, the leather has faded, the table-top has been sanded and restained but I think it all still looks fine. Aging is a problem for us all. We just have to do it gracefully.
I’ve just found somewhere in Brighton that stocks these chairs so we’ll nip out to have a look tomorrow. We need 8 so that will be one consideration. I don’t think we can mix and match.
Just been out for a walk in the gorgeous, Spring weather. It raises the spirits and goodness knows I need it. What is happening to the Labour Government and how could it have got to this stage? All around me the world is wonderful although we are coming up to ¾ of a century in it. Ok, it is a bit faded but what do you expect after 75 years? If you want, I’ll buy you a new one. Only 25 years before we reach our century, Dear Reader. Come on! We can do it!!
Tuesday, 10th February, 2026
The old weather is back and it is raining AGAIN. Farming Today was featuring farmers complaining again but this time with some justification. They were reporting that every year for the past 5 years they had complained that it was an unusual year for weather underlining the fact that Climate Change was a new reality. Aberdeen in Scotland is generally believed to be one of the drier parts of the country but they have seen rain at some point every day for the past 28 and had received 180% of its monthly rainfall in the first week of February.
I think there are 160 flood warnings out this week with lots in Wales, of course, but all the usual suspects in UK – York with the Ouse, Chester with the Dee, Repton with the Trent but also across Europe. Cordoba in Spain is experiencing severe flooding causing huge damage to its olive groves and all the economic pain that will bring.
At least it is still warm for February and I am chauffeuring my House Keeper to her Hairdresser this morning. She is nervous because her regular hairdresser is away on holiday and she is being looked after by one of his many sub-hairdressers but that is quite beyond me. I have offered to do it myself for free but that was rejected as too exciting.
Now I’m driving down the coast road to Hove to a furniture shop to look at some Dining Chairs. Housing Units , it isn’t but you can’t have everything. At least we have the sea and the rain.
It was wet all the way. There’s something quite depressing particularly about seaside towns in wet weather. They are abandoned, deserted and down. Still, the Spring isn’t far away and a three quarters of a century anniversary.
Wednesday, 11th February, 2026
Sunny and warm. Out early to buy fish – 2 x sides of Salmon plus a kilo of Skate Cheeks. That’s a hell of a lot of Skate with carved up faces. I’ve never eaten them before so it will be an interesting first.
When I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer three years ago, my PSA was 7.0 which indicated a tumour. After a year of treatment, it had plummeted to 0.2 and it has remained there for the past two years.
I took a phone call last night from the lovely, young doctor who was reviewing my oncology blood tests. The results are really reassuring and she was refreshingly chatty. I am not really aware of my accent. In fact kids in school always said I talked ‘posh’. It turns out the Doctor who saw me in West Sussex had originally come from Wigan and she had immediately detected a Northern edge on my voice. We discussed the benefits of moving South. Certainly my NHS treatment has been fantastic. I will now be monitored twice a year for the rest of my life.
I am digitally literate. I use the web and apps all the time. I am happy to use chatbots online instead of live humans but sometimes …. I’m not. I have contracts with EE/BT and have had for a long time. They have been voted Best Digital Provider every year for a decade and they are not shy in advertising it. It always makes me laugh because the service they provide me – Broadband and Mobile – is absolutely excellent but their website and app is appalling.
Today, I was forced to speak to a human being in order to get what I wanted. It worked. I have ordered 2 Samsung S25 Ultra smartphones. Each one would cost £1,349.00 to buy. So I have phones to the value of £2,698.00 for free. I have traded my old ones – S24 Ultras – in for a price of £840.00 and my monthly contract has been reduced by £50.00. I managed to negotiate this with a real operator whereas I couldn’t through the web/app. Just to sweeten to the 2 year contract we will also each receive a ‘free’ Samsung Smartwatch which would cost 2 x £200.00 to buy on the open market.
Thursday, 12th February, 2026
Another warm, dry morning but without the sun. I greet every morning with a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a large cup of Yorkshire Tea followed by a large Cappuccino whatever the weather. You will notice that the consistencies there are large and liquid and that is my Breakfast done. The rules of the house dictate that I then unstack the dishwasher ready for the day. This job is rather more painful this morning after my accident last night.
I stupidly broke a glass when I hit the tap with it and it smashed into shards of razor-sharp glass cutting all around the top of my thumb. Because I take blood thinners, it refused to stop bleeding and my Nurse had to take over.
Nurse is prepared for all eventualities and had a liquid bandage spray called New Skin. It is fantastic and seals all the area staunching the flow of blood within minutes. Looks like my very young thumb is varnished and very old but don’t be deceived, Dear Reader. Varnish can be removed. Amazing how many jobs need a thumb, though, when it’s damaged.
My Memory Box reminded me this morning that it was 13 years ago that I was building a website to advertise our Greek house for sale. I launched it in the April before we returned to Greece. When you do things like this without professional help, you immediately feel the weight of legal responsibility. I remember having to do the room measurements 5 times just to make sure there was no come-back after sale.
Found this collection of old Sifnos photos below and found it really moving. To think I knew some of these people and the hardship they had endured, the utterly basic conditions that they went through to get to the present. Maybe we just accept what’s before us at the time. Some of the ferries have long been retired but were a part of my past.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/TSAqkNL6fmE?feature=oembedOld Sifnos …. ah, the memories.
The man who posted this used to cook for us down in Faros (Lighthouse) harbour and the food was wonderful. Oh, I remember it well. Might be approaching three quarters of a century but I haven’t lost it yet.
Friday, 13th February, 2026
Friday the 13th. I’m determined it won’t be unlucky for me, Dear Reader. Over the past two days, delivery men have brought two, new phones plus 2 x covers and screen protectors.
This morning, I have started on the process of copying from the old to the new. It never goes as smoothly as one would like and many accounts have to be reset afterwards. Still, 4 hours later most work is done and we are ready to go forward.
Went out for a walk on the promenade in watery sunshine. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t complete my exercise routine today. Having achieved all my technical goals, I opened a bottle of red wine and relaxed.
Saturday, 14th February, 2026
Having survived Friday 13th, we wish all our readers a Happy Valentine’s Day. It’s going to be special. England are playing Scotland in the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham this afternoon. It doesn’t get much more romantic than that.
It is a beautiful and sunny day. Quite warm in the sun. My main romantic gesture of the day is to tidy out the garden sheds. You have to hand it to me. I know how to get a girl interested.
You know how we take things for granted – and I’m not still on romance here – and when something suddenly changes, we are really thrown. Our use of technology has been disrupted by the introduction of new phones. Right from the start at 6.30 am, I was hit when I started to shave. My shaver is controlled by an app called Philips Groom Tribe on my phone. It monitors the time and my shaving action each morning and reports back. It controls the cleaning pod process and tells me when I need a refill. I know, it’s over the top. It took me ages just to reconnect the shaver with my phone by bluetooth this morning.
Everything across phone, iPad and PC has to interface and synchronise otherwise things become nightmarish. When I delete an email from my phone, I need to see it delete from the others at the same time. Those relationships all have to be re-established. Quite appropriate for Valentine’s. Had to set up all over again my Biometric Security (face & finger print) which controls not only the phone itself but banking and investment apps and many more.
I have traded my old phones in for an excellent price of £840 but now I have to wipe them completely clean of all traces of me and return them to Factory Settings, put them in prepaid packs and take them to the Post Office. In the end, I begin to wonder if it was all worth it. I have also been offered two Samsung Smartwatches free of charge but I have to prove that I’ve bought their phones first and uploaded the invoices to the website. I may even give them away in the end because we’ve both got our own anyway but I’ve ordered them already.
I won’t now get called up to play so I’m going in the Gym to watch the Rugby. If you hear me roaring, you’ll know we’ve scored. And I’m still not talking about Valentine’s.
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