Sunday, 15th February, 2026
Well, it’s really going to be Gym work today. It is pouring down outside and has been for most of the night. And it’s dark and depressing but remarkably warm. Central heating is definitely becoming redundant.
We have a Dual Fuel contract with British Gas paid monthly and we are massively in credit. I checked this morning and we are £148.65 in credit on our Gas Account and £597.22 in credit on our Electricity Account so British Gas hold £745.87 in our account and it won’t be reviewed for another 6 months. I can, of course, demand that they refund it but it is quite nice to know that cushion is there if we experience a sudden very cold snap.
Not that it is looking very likely. Only two weeks until the start of Meteorological Spring. We are told that snow will hit the North of England this week. Here, it may be wet but not cold. I will take that. Actually, we have a quiet week according to our on-line calendar. We are driving up to sunny Surrey on Tuesday for a short visit and that is our commitment for the week ahead.
Just to cheer you up, I thought I would show you an article from today’s Sunday Times. You may remember the old fear which was propagated by Horror Movies of the 1950s & 60s that a person was buried in a coffin while still alive and the clawing away of the victim’s attempts to get out could be heard and seen on exhumation. Well, it appears that scientific research is suggesting that the brain goes on living some time after the body is declared officially dead.
Just when you thought it was safe to die quietly ….. Don’t have nightmares, Dear Reader. It will soon be Monday if you live through the night.
Monday, 16th February, 2026
Beautiful morning with clear blue sky and sunshine but not too warm today. I should be feeling good but I slept badly and have woken feeling rather empty and sad. In these circumstances, I turn to music and, as so often, to Bocelli with Il Mare Calmo Della Sera:
Even the setting of this recording is emotive – the open air amphitheatre of Teatro Del Silenzio in Tuscany in the warmth of a Summer’s evening, the darkness and the lights, the Italian language. What more could you want to hang your emotions on?
Well I drove down to our own Mare this morning but it wasn’t very Calmo. In fact the waves were crashing in huge, white plumes of spray on to the pebble beach as it roared back and forth. And then the children punctured the moment as children so often do. It is Half Term down here and the children come to play on the beach with no concept of the feelings of an adult. Lucky them.
I drove back to the calm of my Office and some more Bocelli. This time, A Te. Enough, enough. Must get on with life. Got to have my hair cut this morning and then the Gym.
Back to Amazon again today. I’m looking for a phone mount for the car. I’ve got used to using a Speed Camera app on longer journeys. It’s called RadarBot and it sounds an audible alarm when I get within half a mile of a fixed speed camera, reminds me of the speed limit and becomes increasingly insistent the closer I get to the camera. Its reliability rests on other users confirming the existence of cameras and reporting the location of any new ones. Having the phone mounted in front of me makes that easier.
Been out walking in the Park for an hour and come home glowing with warmth of exertion. Amazing how much better it makes one feel.
Tuesday, 17th February, 2026
Forcing ghosts back below the surface for a few hours, the day has started sharply. A wonderful morning of clear blue sky and strong sunshine. Perfect for a trip. I’m driving up to Surrey. I’m going to a Dementia Unit of a wonderfully luxurious Care Home to visit C. When I do things like this, it raises memories of happier times and inevitably invites comparisons that can be painful.
I received news from the North of England over Breakfast of my brother-in-law, Kevan, who has cancer and is now to be treated in Christie’s in Manchester with weekly chemotherapy for 3 months along with targeted drugs. He was just 83 a week ago. He is strongly supported by his family as his birthday dinner illustrates. Quite typically, he hides at the back on his own day. He is in a massive but essentially lonely fight which is really not the way to spend your 83rd year. Let’s hope he holds back the years.
The day is about other people and their own battles along the time line of life but it is a way to understand oneself through them. I have had a cancer which knocked my life of course albeit temporarily. You don’t know that at the time. You don’t know that as you drive to the hospital every morning, take off your clothes and lie on a table being irradiated for weeks on end. It feels like there is no tomorrow. And even when you have come through it, you feel as if it is constantly hanging over you.
We’ve driven up to Silvermere Care Home in Surrey. The fees are eye watering and £100,000.00 per year but the service is fantastic.
Silvemere was celebrating Chinese New Year today and they were singing songs of the 1960s and 70s. We knew them all so much that we thought they wouldn’t let us out.
The entertainer who sang and batted balloons around, engaging the residents and encouraging them to take part was lovely. He knew C and that he liked singing. He is from Mauritius and had that sunny, gentle, infectious temperament to perfectly fit in to the place.
And what about Dementia? Will I be one of the sufferers. I have to say that from this side of the line, losing my grip on real-time reality terrifies me. So you see, it is all about me, ultimately. Just as it is all about you, Dear Reader, lurking below the mists of time and memory.
Wednesday, 18th February, 2026
Back to Black. The sky outside is dark and wet. Actually, although the days are noticeably lengthening, it felt dark in the Kitchen this morning as well. I observed to myself only the other day when I was looking for something in my store and came across the box of spare light bulbs that I had forgotten was there.
I can’t remember the last time I had to replace a light bulb. In the 1980s, it could be every other month. Now, it could be 5 years. It is so long ago that not only could I not remember what bulb it was but I couldn’t even remember how to take the old one out to check it. I can tell you now it is pull not twist. Wish I’d made a note of that. Well, I have done in time for the next replacement around 2031. I’ll be 80!
Just been out to buy fish and goodness it is cold. Just 6C/43F but seems to pierce the bone. I’m sure I feel the cold more now. I don’t know if it is my age or the cancer treatment I received but I don’t like it. It makes me feel more vulnerable. That discussion this morning reminded us of an early morning drive over the Pennines in a blizzard. We had to be the first at school for opening arrangements which actually turned out to be closing for the next few days.
The car got stuck in a huge snow drift on Stanage Moor and, thinking I was fit and tough in my mid-30s, I got out of the car in my shirt sleeves to save my suit jacket from the snow storm, I proceeded to dig the car tyres clear to the point when I couldn’t feel my face never mind hands and feet. I was on the edge of hypothermia and hadn’t thawed out for hours afterwards.
On a day when the inflation rate has come down to 3% and is predicted to reach the Bank of England target of 2% by April thanks to the Labour government, the price of fish is still rising. This morning I bought 2Kg of Cod Loin at a cost of £84.00. I’m feeling quite good, though, that I have tax free investments paying 4.4% for the next 18 months so earning genuine advantage.
Thursday, 19th February, 2026
Another warm but grey morning. Must wish little Bob happy 74th birthday. It is that time of year when he catches up with me temporarily.
As I observe every time, it is hard to come to terms with someone else gettting older. It makes you reassess yourself.
Today I am going to book a Whole Body Health Check in the Covent Garden facility of Neko Health. It is a new organisation set up jointly by two Swedes – a former member of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the founder of Spotify whose £Billions is providing the finance.
They offer a quick and relatively cheap way to undergo an annual health check which involves whole body scan including skin for cancer alerts plus many peripheral tests around bloods and circulation. There is immediate feedback plus a detailed report follow up and the findings are compared over time for changes.
As they say, early detection is half the battle. It allows for early intervention and far better chance of prevention of serious conditions developing. I see it as dovetailing in with my NHS checks and, of course, my Doctor will receive a detailed report of the findings. It is only £300.00 for the first check and £250.00 for each subsequent year’s follow up. I will go to the Covent Garden Centre or the Marylebone Centre so it will take up a day or we may book a hotel over night and do some shopping.
If any Readers are interested, they also have Centres in London Spitalfields, Birmingham and Manchester with one coming in New York soon if you fancy a sight seeing trip as well.
Our high flying next door neighbours are having a break from many Business Trips and going to a pub in Hackney to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Could we feed the cats while they are out?
Friday, 20th February, 2026
Lovely, sunny morning. I didn’t sleep well so it was 7.00 am when I got up and I struggled. My body certainly doesn’t spring into life as easily and quickly these days. Still, the morning greeted me with optimism.
The Economy under Rachel Reeves is showing real signs of positive growth. Sweep away the Far Right attempts to attack her, the headlines this morning show real green shoots of recovery after the Tory debacle.
And then, of course, we had the most wonderfully iconic symbol of the demise of the monarchy which I’ve been waiting for all my life. As a republican I have longed for this moment. We are going to see President Starmer alongside Prime Minister Burnham before I die.
Walking through the village this morning, this tree just drew me to it. I hadn’t got a clue what it was although, perhaps I should have. It is Mimosa or Acacia dealbata. Native to Australia, it isn’t fully hardy in the UK other than in southern and coastal regions where winters are milder.
Saturday, 21st February, 2026
A grey, warm morning. A morning for thinking, talking, reminiscing, dreaming of what might have been. The mists of the past are swirling through my memory.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
and don’t have any kids yourself.Philip Larkin – This Be the Verse from High Windows
It was 17 years ago this coming week that I received a letter containing a cheque. I recorded that I didn’t remember ever crying at receiving a cheque before. It was from my Mother’s Last Will & Testament and was entitled: The Estate of Catherine Lily Bennett – DECEASED. That word struck home instantly and events were still raw in my mind.
Everything is constantly in flux and changes were coming thick and fast. A month later, we had retired and were preparing to set off for our Greek home. We were leaving our responsibilities behind and, although it freed us it also troubled us.
A year later, in 2010 I recorded that we were within six weeks of leaving Pauline’s Mum for six months. It was always assumed that, when she became unable to look after herself, she would move from the Anchor Housing ‘Residential’ home to the Anchor Housing ‘Care’ home just further up the hill in Waterhead.
When we visited to look the place over, one of the first people we came across was Ellen Brierley who I knew well from Education circles in the town. She had been Oldham’s first ever Mayor and Education Chair Woman. She had been on the Governing Board of my school and always fought for teachers. At the age of 96, she had developed dementia and moved into the care home. She died shortly after that. The mists of time enveloped her for the last time but see, I raise her up temporarily here. We all continue to exist in other’s memories.
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