Sunday, 29th March, 2026
The clocks all went forward automatically except the ovens and the coffee maker. The March Equinox, also known as the Vernal (or Spring) Equinox marks the official start of Spring but ushers in British Summer Time. Ours has started bright but cold. It doesn’t feel like Summer.
My friend, Kevin, is taking 18 members of his family to Portugal for a week and I don’t blame him. It will certainly be warmer than here although I don’t envy him being surrounded by 17 other members of his family. My idea of a nightmare!
It’s going to be another gardening day here. Everything has to be ready for plants to arrive through the post in the second week of April. First I watch the political interview programmes – Trevor Phillips on Sky and Laura Kuenssberg on BBC1. They are all about the effects of Trump’s mad war on the world’s economy and our supplies and prices which all affect public opinion even though we had no part in prosecuting this disaster.
People as old as me, and I will join the old wrinklies next week when I reach 75, will remember the 3-Day Week of 1973 and the fuel rationing that took place. To comment on that, David Owen was wheeled out to recall on those times.
On this day 10 years ago, we moved into our new house and spent our first night here. It was a busy, long and exhausting day which saw us eating a Take Away meal which was so unusual for us. We had the internet but the Televisions were on order and hadn’t arrived. We watched the news across the net on my laptop propped up on a plastic box. Ironically, I had spent a lot of cash on Media Distribution Panels which were sitting idly on the wall in front of me.
It took another 4 days for the Sky installer to come and put us out of our misery by erecting a satelite dish. Ten years on, it is no longer needed as superfast broadband has taken over. I took this photo on the day but what strikes me now, looking back, is the building dust covering the road and the weedy little hedge that is now 5ft tall, thick, green and lustrous. We had been staying with P&C in Surrey while we waited for our house completion and it was poignant last week to visit the house as it was closed for the last time before being handed over to its new owners. Everything changes eventually, Dear Reader.
Monday, 30th March, 2026
Glorious morning – warm and sunny. Perfect for gardening. Just been out to Wickes to buy 10 bags or 500 litres of perfectly sifted and enriched garden compost for just £40.00. A bargain! My wife was more worried about whether I would break the back axel of the car than how much it cost.
I have been gardening since I was 7 but seriously since I was 27. I really enjoy it and the effort is good for me. Most of this compost will be used in public spaces but it will also enrich my raised beds in the back garden and replenish the pots.
In a matter of days and depending on the weather, NASA’s modern moonshot, Artemis II, is set to launch, beginning a multi-mission expedition to take humans back to the moon. Some people get very excited about things like this but I’m afraid it doesn’t really raise my interest. The first moon landing happened in July, 1969.
I had just finished my A Levels and was doing a holiday job at Pirelli Tyre Factory in Burton upon Trent. I was working 12 hr shifts 6 days a week and raking in the cash. With my first week’s wage, I went out and bought a pair of incredibly tight fitting hipster trousers – grey with orange stripes very similar to the ones featured above. My Mother hated them which made them even more hip and certainly more significant than men on the moon.
I wonder what you remember about 1969, Dear Reader. Let me jog your memory. I certainly had to jog my own. In 1969 in the UK:
- The Beatles released their final album, Abbey Road, and give their last public performance on the roof of Apple Records.
- The Rolling Stones released Honky Tonk Women and Brian Jones died at 27 years of age in his swimming pool.
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus premiered.
- Charles was invested as Prince of Wales.
- Concorde flew its maiden flight.
- The Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ began as troops were deployed.
- The House of Lords voted to abolish the death penalty.
In 1969 in the United States:
- The Woodstock Festival was held featuring Jimmi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Joni Mitchel, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and many more.
- Charles Manson and his disciples murdered five people including Sharon Tate.
- The first moon landing happened.
- Nixon became President.
- The first citizen died of Aids and the Gay Rights Movement began.
However, far exceeding all of those events in significance is the fact that I left home and went to College in North Yorkshire. Admittedly, its significance is more for me than the world but similar.
Tuesday, 31st March, 2026
Not the greatest day to see out March 2026. Not cold but fairly grey still. I was hoping for better. Gardening is put off until tomorrow. Today, I’ve got more lucrative things to do. You will have heard about the Car Finance Scandal in which Car Salesmen managed to engineer extra commissions by selling financial products that customers didn’t really need. I’ve been buying new cars since 1975 and I can tell you that this has only really became a feature of that transaction in the last 20 years.
The claims that are possible against misselling can only go back to 2007. In that time I have bought 10 brand new cars. As such, I am the Claims Nightmare because I get my secretary to file everything. I have paperwork for every new car purchase including that one I bought in Oldham in 1975. It is a comprehensive record to rival the Blog.
These documents are making the filing cabinet bulge to the point where a new cabinet is more urgent than a new car. We were told last night that each eligible claim would receive £830.00 compensation. Of the 10 new cars I bought in that period, 7 are potentially eligible claims so I am confidently expecting a pay out of just under £6000.00 in time.
All my cars were bought from two Dealerships. Of those, 3 since 2007 were bought from Hepworth Honda in Huddersfield where I bought almost 20 new cars since the 1980s but only 3 qualify under this scheme. The salesman died last year and the dealership has changed hands and name. The rest were bought from Honda in Worthing where lots of weird and wonderfully dodgy finance schemes were offered.
This morning, a couple of hours searching through paperwork and then filling out a stock, formal email letter has allowed me to send off 7 claims to the official compensation scheme not to one of the many internet lawyers who claim 30% of the cash. I will not be giving any of it out although, of course, I will be handing it all to my wife for ‘safe keeping’ or new clothes.
At least the garden is looking clean and ready for what is to come. Already in are potatoes, onion sets and lettuce seeds. The temperature this afternoon is a pleasant 20C/68F and the sun is warm. My odd job woman is varnishing the cold frames and everything is ready for the season to begin. There are stars in my eyes!
Wednesday, 1st April, 2026
Happy New Month, Dear Reader. Happy April. A warm morning after a beautiful, moonlit night. We are looking forward to long, sunny days ahead. This month will be gardening but then the travelling begins – and I for one can’t wait. France, Greece, Spain, Tenerife, Lancashire & Yorkshire. People and Places to look forward to.
I also have to wish my friend, Christine Dagg, Happy Birthday. I have known her for 54 years and being 75 is quite scary. She is jetting off to Albufeira in Portugal with 17 members of her extended family to celebrate. I’ve spoken to her today to wish her a happy time. She seems to be very content in her family with children at university and doing well. I’m pleased for her.
I must admit I’m quite scared at the prospect of being 75 next week. I remember the 50 and 60 barriers quite well. When we moved from the North of England, I was only 60 years old. When we moved down to the South Coast, I was only 65 years old but it is scary how short those spans of time have felt. A similar one will see me reach 85 and 90 years old. Could anyone seriously imagine that?
I don’t know why but I watched a serious but meaningful film last night on Netflix called Care. It was written by Jimmy McGovern so it is fairly hard hitting and gritty. It starred Sheridan Smith and Alison Steadman as daughter and mother. Mother has two daughters one of whom also has two daughters. A lot of the positions are cliched in that they are true to reality. Older Mothers tend to outlive their husbands and so it is here.
Mother, Alison Steadman, has survived her husband and is now doing Grandma duties looking after her daughter’s two kids when they come home from school so their mother, Sheridan Smith can work. Suddenly, everything changes in a flash. Driving the kids home from school, Grandma has a stroke and crashes the car. In hospital, she is also diagnosed with dementia.
Daughter has to look after a stroke limited, dementia limited Mother. She loses her job and the father of her two children has moved on to another relationship. Her own sister is too tied up in life to share the care and they can’t afford a quality Care Home.
I won’t tell you any more because it would spoil the story but it is predictive of a situation that many of us will face from one end of the telescope or another. I already talk to my Carer about not caring too much. Aggression comes with dementia and I am too big for her to cope with. If that is my future, she has instructions to dump me outside the Local Authority Offices and to save all the money to look after herself. Of course, when dementia calls, you have to remember the good times however distant.
Now, just as Americans get ready to blast off to the moon for the first time for almost 55 years, I’m going out to mow the lawns. Bet I finish first. I was sweating when I finished in a temperature of 16C/61F. The summer is coming!
Thursday, 2nd April, 2026
Glorious morning after a beautiful night which featured an almost full moon. Apparently that is tonight – a pink moon. I will be looking up at that, Dear Reader. Will you?
The first week of April is finance time. The end of the old and the start of the new Tax Year on my birthday. In case you’ve forgotten it, that is April 6th. Chef is already planning my Birthday Supper. She is making Vegetable Pizza. I am not allowed pizza normally, in fact, I am not allowed bread but birthdays are treat days so I ask for pizza. I bought Chef a wonderful electric, Pizza Oven last year but it so rarely gets used that it lives in the outdoor kitchen. It reaches 400C and cooks a pizza perfectly in minutes. All the time is taken in the preparation of the dough but that’s what Chefs are for.
I’m afraid I’ve had a second blank month on Premium Bonds so the experiment is going a little sour at the moment. It’s going to take a big prize to catch up at this rate. I’m still considering ISA investments at the moment. In fact, I may hold off for a while to see if interest rates, which were forecast to fall, have another rise. The current league table looks like this above. I certainly don’t want to tie money up for more than 3 years but it would be nice to get 5.00% tax free on £40,000.00 over that period. As you know, with compound interest, that would make £6,305.00 over the period.
We aim to save £20,000 per year from our income which goes into various high rate paying acccounts before being moved into tax free ISAs. I know that will seem small beer to some people but we think it is reasonable for two poorly paid teacher pensioners and it is an investment in our futures such as they are.
Friday, 3rd April, 2026
A damp start to a momentous day. It is the official start to the English Cricket Season … but that’s not the moment. On this day 17 years ago, we left work for the last time. A day later, we were on our way to Greece with Olympic Airways which also doesn’t exist anymore.
An ex-pupil provided this memory of the beginning of our school journey. I started in September 1972 and Pauline in September 1973. I always remember her arriving for interview. I was teaching a Year 11 class English as this gorgeous creature with long, blonde hair right down to her bottom walked past my open classroom door. I stopped speaking and stuck my head out to watch her walking up the corridor only to find two boys behind me doing exactly the same thing. At that point the die was cast in all sorts of ways.
Teaching gave us a reasonable living and is providing a much better retirement than expected but I would not go into it if I had my time again. We met some lovely people, some delightful kids but I became increasingly cynical about managing the process of state education. So much time was spent gaming the system, massaging/fabricating the data for essentially meaningless targets and being judged on ludicrous standards which, once again, were subject to massage.
I have a feeling it is too late to change course now. I received a Birthday card to day which rather emphasises that I am joining the old, wrinklies. Actually, in spite of what I say, I’m still finding it really hard to let go of ambition. There are things I am determined to achieve and the graduation points of time like this just temporarily dent my confidence and then I shrug them off.
We have to keep moving forward or we die. Time is the film score to that movement and it is up to us to turn the volume down a notch and not let it drown out the narrative. It may be Bad Friday today but I live in hope that the next one will be better. I am determined to make it so.
In moments like this I listen to Bocelli’s Because We Believe. It moves me every time but it proves I am alive and still hoping and, through a vale of tears, makes me more determined.
Like stars across the sky
E per avvincere
Tu dovrai vincere
We were born to shine
All of us here because we believe
Non arrenderti
Qualcuno è con te
Like stars across the sky
We were born to shine
E per avvincere
Dovrai vincere
E allora vincerai
Music and words are the morphine for the heart. The song ends with E allora vincerai – And then you’ll win. Optimism is all. And in that vein, I am going in the Gym while Chef is trying to sabotage it by making Hot Crossed Buns which she will serve dripping in butter. How will I cope?
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