Sunday, 22nd March, 2026
It’s great to wake early and see sunshine from clear, blue sky. I’m seeing it again this morning. It’s going to be a good day and, hopefully, a good week.
Gardening today. Sowing lettuces and parsley for cutting in June. Tidying up the garden and cleaning the patio and paths of the winter grime. In West Yorkshire our acre of garden was a daunting task to manage. Here, a few hours and it’s done and this year with so much time away the garden will just have to get on without too much help.
Nipping to France this week mainly on a wine buying trip but I suspect my navigator will be looking for shoes and chocolate to balance the experience. We are driving to the tunnel early to avoid traffic. Hoping that they will be using the new biometric recognition system – the EEC Entry/Exit System which is replacing manual passport stamps for non-EU citizens – so we can establish our position on the database in advance of airport travel in June.
It has been delayed for the past 12 months because it was causing chaos and delays but we’ve got two chances this week and another French trip in May before we fly to Greece in June and Spain in July.
I love Europe and feel European. I certainly don’t feel American and Trump has crystalised that. He is really doing us a favour in driving UK back into the arms of Europe where we need economic and military alliances. For the pro-EU folk among us — which is, in fact, most of the country at this point — this is welcome mood music. It’s not just Paris, either. The Germans miss having us around to wind the French up. The Nordics and Netherlanders and Baltics all want us more involved. The Irish wish we’d never left. Everyone realises that America’s world chaos era makes European co-operation vital.
Monday, 23rd March, 2026
A warm morning with weak sunshine. The car is cleaned and ready for setting off for France tomorrow morning. The station that was out of fuel on Saturday now has some and the price is only 141.9p. The drive is about 200 miles round trip and the tank has 420 miles in it now so all is well. I will fill up in France before returning.
The order of the day is preparing for gardening next week. I have to buy plants to put out on the street beds and for our own back garden. This year, I’m buying plug plants to pot up and grow on in my cold frames.
They have to make an effect from a distance as you drive into the Development so I don’t choose subtle colours. They have to survive throughout the Summer and well into Autumn without much aftercare. These plants will do that.
I’ve ordered 400 plants which will cost me about £150.00 but it is a small contribution to my neighbourhood which is a happy and friendly place to live. They will arrive throughout the month of April and I will grow them on under glass until they go out into beds in May. I’ll have a few weeks to establish them outside before I go abroad and leave them to the mercy of my neighbours.
A lot of Right Wing populist rhetoric is just that – hot air without a foot in reality. It is easy to be a critic without responsibility. It is easy to spout nonsense without understanding. Today, we see Trump punctured of hot air by the reality of the bind he finds himself in and from which he is back pedalling furiously. Trump Always Chickens Out is coming home to roost before our eyes.
At the same time, the slavering Right Wing Press in the UK have been predicting the rise of the rabid Right Wing in France and the demise of Macron. Wrong again. It was wishful thinking like that of those supporting the Deform Party in UK. The Socialists have won again. You just have to love the French!
Tuesday, 24th March, 2026
Up early at 5.00 am. Dark and felt a bit chilly this morning. Setting off for Le Shuttle at 5.30 am and still dusk. The car said it was 11C/52F but felt really cold. We had a nearly 2hr drive A272/M23/M25/M20. We arrived 30 mins early in time for a cup of coffee. There was hardly anyone lining up for a 9.15 am train.
It looks like world instability and off peak times have almost killed cross channel travel. I think this every time I go through an airport and here, today at the Tunnel Terminal. Keen shop assistants stand around looking deperate for clients. They’re looking at the wrong person in me. I would never buy from them. My wife occasionally buys perfume that she says is much cheaper but that’s the best they can expect.
France was grey and cold. Unseasonably cold. Actually, we reached 14C/57F but the breeze made it feel freezing. I contacted friends back in UK looking for warmth. I listened to Radio 4 Today programme by putting my phone through my car’s sound system while under the sea. Swiftly off the train in France and on to Cité Europe. Here the cost of living and instability of current times was obvious. These are desperate times for poor people.
I, on the other hand, was indulging in wine buying. My wife was indulging in chocolate buying. The contrast didn’t escape me. Our indulgencies are purely discretionary. They are exactly that … discretionary. I spent £800.00 on wine and she spent £60.00 on chocolate. We both have our weakenesses.
Wednesday, 25th March, 2026
Not warm again but bright and sunny. We have our annual Central Heating service this morning. We haven’t used it much in the past year although the water is heated constantly. Sounds like we are going to bear the brunt of the costs of this Middle East war. However, it was interesting yesterday to fill up with petrol in France at a cost of £1.73 per litre and then drive home and fill up again at a cost of £1.40 per litre. If you remain insular, you are denied the international comparison that provides perspective and meaning. You think we have it bad. Look elsewhere to know.
Funnily enough and I love these ironies, one of the first things I heard about as I sat drinking coffee in France was the collapse of a building …. in Oldham. I love France. I feel relaxed and comfortable there but the warm glow of memory floods my mind when Oldham is conjured up. As I followed the news story up, I found the collapse was caused by building rennovation work and when you look at the town it desperately needs it. Labour is investing £31 million in developing the old Mumps area.
So many of these Northern towns which were made prosperous by the industrial revolution feel like they have been left behind by a post-industrial society in which the economy and social structures have shifted from manufacturing to services and technology driven activities. They have to address that and investment is needed. Boris Johnson proudly talking of levelling up but that was all he did. Labour are actually doing it.
Nobody would pretend that it is enough but it is something more than previously and looks like it will transform the landscape. You only have to look at the old and dilapidated buildings that speak of a long lost time – a time before modern heating and insulation were even dreamed of. Often they were built before most of the services were available that we would consider essential now.
For all the romance of history, it is surely time to sweep much of it away and build new. That’s why I am pleased to see Labour prepare to build 7 new towns with 1.5 million new homes all built to a level of insulation and with solar heating that the builders of the last century could only have dreamed of.
Thursday, 26th March, 2026
Gorgeous morning. Drinking the sunlight in and enjoying the Mediterranean sky. Just makes me feel happier. As the world is on fire, I am trying to navigate a retirement of happiness and fulfillment. Only 16 years ago, I was just 58 years old and had decided I wasn’t going to work anymore. We had both made that decision and were negotiating hard the terms of our redundancy.
They didn’t want us to go. They even offered Pauline a new job. We had to make them realise it would be for the best if they gave us a nice big pay off and let us slip away quietly. On this day, 16 years ago, we had just 8 days left of our working lives. It was absolutely weired, scary, exciting, optimistic with the future full of possibilities. Actually, we didn’t even know if we might need to do some consultancy work to supplement our incomes. We soon realised that wasn’t going to be necessary at all.
As we prepared to go off and play out in our Greek home, the school wound down towards the new Academy in Waterhead. The once busy corridors, that I walked for years keeping noisy kids in check, soon fell silent. The cleaners and caretakers moved out and the building was left to the winds of time.
It was a time when I most needed to be in charge of events and I was constantly contacting people, checking financial figures – redundancy payoffs x 2, Pension forecasts x 2, Lump Sums x 2, Mortgage settlement figure, etc.. It all felt too demanding. Right up to the last day, things were uncertain. And then, suddenly they weren’t. The terms were agreed, the figures looked better than anticipated and all was well with the world.
We flew straight to our Greek home where we could relax after the turmoil of the last term. The property was carpeted with Spring flowers, the air was warm, there were lemons on the trees in the back garden and life was suddenly calm and quiet. We realised that we’d never need to work again unless we chose and it took a little while before we accepted that, psychologically, we didn’t need to work.
Sixteen years on, what is my life reduced to? This morning I received a new responsibility – using a Food Waste Bin! Well, I won’t be responsible but you know what I mean. It feels like the microcosm has gone almost as mad as the macrocosm. Food Bins, Gaza, Iran – let’s run away to a Greek island!
Friday, 27th March, 2026
Only Friday. It’s seemed a long week. I’ve got through quite a lot. The days are getting longer and the clocks go forward on Saturday night/Sunday morning. I’ve been awake since 5.00 am and listening to political podcasts The Newsagents USA this morning discussing the $Billion spikes in the Nasdaq just before Trump announced a 10 day hiatus in the bombing of Iran. Insider Trading was going on making a great deal of money for the chosen few in the know. And we wonder why people are cynical about politicians.
And then I found this. Who needs AI when you can fool most of the people some of the time with simple software. I posted it on Twitter/X and Threads, Bluesky and Facebook. At the time of writing, it had received more than 10,000 viewings, reposts, etc..
It is now 8.00 am and life has come back with a soft landing – a glorious landing – as I switch on my PC and I’m greeted by this scene. My computer screen gives me a new picture each day and this one made me think of the past, of innocent times, of happier times and of John Ridley.
Of course, the turmoil out on the world’s rim is bleeding back into our own lives as the world economy cracks under the strain. It is also derailing the Labour Government’s hard work as interest rates were due to reduce again. Inflation was forecast to return to the BoE’s 2.0% and net migration was expected to go negative by the end of the year. Now, the reverse is expected. This major investment in roads has almost gone out unannounced and almost unnoticed as the noise of war clouds everything.
Saturday, 28th March, 2026
Well, the month of March and Blog Week 900 are drawing to a conclusion in sympathy with Daylight Saving. An hour less in bed tonight. I won’t miss it. I was awake at 5.00 am this morning as the day opened with clear blue sky and strong sunshine.
Today is Jane’s birthday. She is 72 years old and living in West Yorkshire where I used to live. I didn’t want to flatter her too much with the photo but we hope she has a lovely day in spite of it.
Down on the pier, the Prom. Run was starting to prepare and busy people were packing as much into their lives as possible with a Saturday Fun Run. I often think I’ve done nothing with my life but then, on focussing down, I realise how many experiences I’ve got through.
This morning, I found my life on the Office desk in the form of the Accounts. We must have been talking about something yesterday which led to my accountant getting out the early records. The top book began on 25th, September 1981. We had been married for almost 3 years by then and earlier records were kept on Bank Statements but the real plan started here.
Although the amounts seem farcically small, I can see the seeds of a lifetime’s principles from the start. We have always tried to maintain a healthy current account. Our principle 45 years ago was to keep a level of about £550.00 which was more than one salary. Now, 45 years on, we would be unhappy if our current account fell much below £10,000.00. In those early days, our mortgage was just £55.08 per month. Our final mortagage was around £2,500.00 per month. Even though we were working on relatively small sums of income, we set the principle of saving right from the start. Our Standing Orders contained 3 monthly payments out to M&G or Municipal & General Securities Company Limited, an investment company where we built up savings. We have been doing it ever since.
Our house was centrally heated but we had an open fire in the Lounge for which we bought coal and logs. Albert Stephens was the supplier and I found his company still listed this morning. I was big into photography even then but everything had to be sent off to be developed by PhotoPost and returned as prints – however bad. I think it became Photo Express just for enthusiasts like my brother, Bob, after digital became established. We loved to eat out at Sole Mio in Huddersfield which was fantastic in the early days but it only cost us £10.05 for a meal with wine back in 1981.
Just 8 years later, our salaries had more than doubled because of big catching-up pay awards and career promotions and we were feeling affluent. We had bought a big, new house with an acre of land in a Conservation village, we had bought four new cars, taken out Health Insurance at a cost of £600.00 per year first with Clinicare and then with Bupa. And our accounts were preparing to go digital.
How life has changed. Even the accounts package we use was discontinued 20 years ago but I’ve managed to bend it to install on all future platforms. It is so easy to go back and check when something was purchased, when some new investment programme was started, when some subscription needs cancelling. It is life on a spreadsheet and non the less important for that.
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