Month: August 2026

Sunday, 16th August, 2026

As the weather changes … allegedly … and the heatwave slackens in the North of England, we are preparing to set off for the inferno that is Athens. Twenty years ago today, I was a Greek God looking down from on high over Kamares harbour as the ferries came and left for other lumps of rock in the Cyclades. Although I was still teaching – for another 3 years – we had driven across Europe, sailed down the Adriatic, driven through Athens to Piraeus and taken a ferry to our house on Sifnos.

We spent five weeks on the island in very hot conditions and then packed everything up to drive all the way home. The order of the day in our Greek house was to open up all the windows and doors in the morning to channel any sea breeze through and then close all the shutters in the afternoon to stop the baking sun raising the temperature so high that we cooked. Evenings were offset with air conditioning thank goodness.

Twenty years on and back in UK, we are duplicating that principle with all the doors and windows open in the mornings and blinds closed in the afternoon as the intense sun bites into the south facing kitchen. We don’t have air conditioning installed yet but we will this Winter which will almost certainly guarantee that next Summer will be very cold and wet.

Hair cut this morning in preparation for travel. My hairdresser has just arrived – well, she will do when she’s stacked the dishwasher. Shorter than usual because of the heat I’m told. Someone who knows about Biology tells me that sunshine encourages hair to grow faster. A natural sceptic, I asked AI who/which told me:

A little sunshine can support healthy hair growth, but it does not make hair grow faster. The key mechanism is vitamin D — sunlight helps your skin produce it, and vitamin D plays an important role in keeping hair follicles cycling normally.

Greek Gods need to know this stuff. Anyway, I get ‘free’ haircuts so I just nod in ascent to any old ideas that come out during the process.

Upstairs, the bed in one of the spare rooms is currently becoming more and more cluttered with items to be packed and the available clothes in my wardrobes seem to be declining at a similar rate. Downstairs, I’ve done all the paperwork/digital record keeping – checking in online for flights and downloading Boarding Passes, even checking in at our hotel online.

I hate the cattle-market approach of airport life but going early makes it so much more palatable. I’ve booked a Gatwick Airport Lounge but I don’t think we’ll use it because we fly so early. It will be a matter of driving to the Long Stay Carpark, getting the shuttle bus to Terminal, straight through Security and down to Gate. The flight is 3 hrs 50 mins and I will probably sleep straight through it at that time in the morning. We arrive at 11.00 am(EET)which is still 9.00 am in our body clocks so we will have almost a full day available from the start.

Monday, 17th August, 2026

My morning starts with news and news rolls through the day. This morning I have been struck by something which has been long overdue to be said. Many of us have known it but not had the facts at our fingertips. What that has done is allow others to make up the ‘facts’, to persuade others of ‘the facts’ and whip up fear and hatred based on those false facts. Everyone should be allowed to hold stupidly false opinions but you can’t make up facts.

This morning, a new edition of the long going study known as Crime Survey
for England & Wales initiated almost 45 years ago and renewed annually. What this survey reports is not opinions but facts. It is an empirical study and many people particularly on the Right of politics will be shocked to the point of insisting it is false. It is not. It is not their opinion. It is fact.

Contrary to popular opinion, crime in England & Wales has come down by 80%+ in the past 40 years and that applies almost entirely across the board although things like computer-based fraud have increased because it didn’t exist at the start of the study. Why will these facts come as a shock to those less thoughtful, less intelligent, less curious about the truth. Well that is because they are constantly being told by the Right Wing that Britain is Broken.

It quite clearly isn’t but it taps into a natural human trait that looks back to the Golden Age – the time from their youth, perhaps, when things were so much better. The Golden Age in global terms refers back to 500BC in ancient Greece when tyrrany was expunged and art, philosophy, architecture and literature which are the building blocks of our own civilization first flourished. Political Democracy was founded in its infancy.

The Golden Age ended because Athens lost the Peloponnesian War but it’s influence had radiated out across the world and is referred back to regularly as a lodestone against which to measure democracies and cultures now. Of course, it was never that ‘golden’ for the servants and slaves, for the poor and often for women. In just the same way, the Britain the Right Wing want to take back is one where the working class knew their place in the social structure led by the aristocratic and industry elites and where the poor were cannon fodder for imperialist ambitions and factory fodder in enriching the barons of industry.

Across history, movements on the Right have often framed decline as the work of an “Other,” a group cast as the obstacle to recovering a lost Golden Age. The pattern is remarkably consistent: evoke a past moment of greatness, declare that something precious has slipped away, and then identify outsiders—cultural, political, or demographic—as the force preventing its return. It’s a narrative that blends nostalgia with threat, promising restoration once the supposed barrier is removed. As ever, the Golden Age is less a period than a story, and the story depends on having someone to blame.

For years the Right have used migrants as the other who are the obstacle to recovering a lost Golden Age. If only they didn’t take your jobs, lower your wages, take all your houses, block up your surgeries and hospitals, commit crimes and fill up your prisons … if only … your life would be wonderful.

Just as there is a huge gap between reality and perception about crime so there has been created a chasm between facts and beliefs concerning immigrants in UK. The actual number of EU migrants in UK is just 6% whereas popular belief is that it is nearer 16% giving rise to the cry, We are full. There is no more room! This is a rich seam of racism for Farage and Deform to mine and a very difficult concept to oppose.

Tuesday, 18th August, 2026

Warm – 26C/79F but overcast this morning as we prepare to set off for Gatwick Airport and sunny Athens. Of course a Greek island is in the news this morning and it is the one I have been associated with since 1984. That was when we first visited Sifnos in the Cyclades and then went back twice a year every year until we built a house there and spent 6 months a year in it.

One of the attractions of Sifnos for me was that it was difficult to get to and we didn’t hear many English voices back then. It took 4.5 hours to fly from Manchester to Athens and then 5 hours by ferry from Piraeus. So, it was quite a commitment in escapism.

I loved the island and the people immediately. We loved the food. Sifnos is particularly known for its Tavernas. I loved to walk miles every day across those barren, dry stone walled pathways to the background music of a thousand cicadas and to swim in the warm, inviting bays. Maybe, I have spent my adult life running away and this was just the place.

It took 15 years before we plucked up the courage to buy a field and have a house built and I don’t regret it one bit. It was a magical time. The journey there got longer and, at the same time, shorter. We ditched the flights and drove but the ferries cut the journey from Piraeus by half. However, all that remoteness that was a selling point to a young man became literally a selling point to an old man. Isolation can be a life threatening thing in old age.

There is no airport so transport to and from Athens is by sea from Piraeus or by light aircraft to Paros and then by sea from there. We did the light aircraft route a couple of times in the 1990s but it was pretty homespun and scary. Our first flight was us and a load of parcels and the exit door was literally tied on with twine. If it’s too windy, the flights are cancelled and Greek islands are, by definition, windy in Melti season. As I say, the other route is 2.5 hours by sea but that is little good if you have a heart attack and there are no meaningful medical facilities on the island.

The one thing that Sifnos does have is a heliport. It has been there for years for the rich to travel without the Great Unwashed and there are plenty of those in Cattle Class on cheap, Greek ferries. However, the helicopter flight from Athens is around 50 mins instead of 150 mins on a ferry but it would cost €3,000.00 for two people one way as opposed to €100.00 on the ferry. If you are not extremely rich and not in extremis, you only buy helicopter flight as a big treat.

My wife didn’t see it as a treat but a potential death trap rather akin to the Big Dipper in Blackpool but without the safety checks. This morning brought the tragic news of a couple of British newly weds dying in a helicopter crash along with the pilot at Sifnos Helidrome. It was somewhere we had visited so many times. Feel so sorry for the family of newly weds on their honeymoon dying on a barren rock in the Aegean, friendless and homeless but soaring like Icarus too close to the sun.

This story will dominate TV Greek News for many days while we are here ….. in Athens. If you are reading this, you are still alive – just. Have a good day.

Wednesday, 19th August, 2026

It has rained at home for a large chunk of the day. Still warm but beautifully wet at 26C/79F. For us here in Athens, the standard 34C/93F was what we sweated through. Delightful!

I think I laboured this point last trip but all the media hype about the nightmares of European travel and how the EU was ‘punishing’ UK citizens because of Brexit were utterly dispelled by our experience on this journey so far. We hardly had time to breathe as we arrived at Gatwick, were rushed through Security, taken immediately to Gate by Easyjet because of our Speedy Boarding status.

We were boarded very early, left early and landed 20 mins early. We were so early that our suite at the hotel wasn’t ready and we had to go out for Lunch. We went to our favourite street-side Taverna for Horiatiki – Greek Salad and Gemiste – stuffed peppers and tomatoes. Wonderful!

After a delightful Lunch, our suite was ready and we settled for a relaxing afternoon on our patio in the hot sunshine.

In fact, we ordered Room Service instead of going out to eat and watched the sun go down with a bottle of red wine. Life could be worse ….

Thursday, 20th August, 2026

Last night was hot and dark. A half moon rose in the night sky and the Acropolis dominated the landscape.

Stepping out of UK for a while is exactly what one needs to understand the country’s demented obsessions. This morning it is the right wing media obsession with Prince Harry & his less than white wife, Meghan.

It really does make us look foolish, trivial and more than slightly racist. It is, for me quite embarrassing.

It is 10.00 am and 33C/91F just after Breakfast. Sitting outside reading the newspapers, Sid the sparrow came down for a drink and to learn the news. How awkward I felt to tell him people in Britain who were struggling with their own lives and lack of finance were obsessing over an entitled family of multi millionaires deciding where in the world they would live for a while.

If you are a person who would love to visit the Athens Acropolis but can’t afford the time or the money, I can tell you, you don’t need to. The people standing round the flag are in 36C/97F at the moment and they will have queued for an hour in that baking sun, paid €60.00 for two people, climbed 200 stones steps rubbed dangerously shiny by millions of visitors and been confronted by a load of old stones.

I have never been one for doing the tourist must sees nor understanding History through touching things from the past. I had been in Greece for 30 years before I plucked up the determination to climb up to the Acropolis and was then rather underwhelmed. Athens is for the living and the present. It’s history informs that but shouldn’t dominate it.

Friday, 21st August, 2026

We have been coming here so long and are so old that even the Ancient City of Athens has changed in that time. It is 10.00 am here as I write and already 36F/97F. It is only 8.00 am in UK and my body clock is still in that zone. We will be coming home just as I am adjusted.

Not used to a solid Breakfast, 8.00 am/10.00 am is the earliest I can attempt it. The Breakfast Room at the top of the hotel used to be at the bottom of the hotel when we first came here 30 years ago. Sophia, the girl who served us at Breakfast, was not even born at that time and knew nothing of it.

This hotel is part of the Electra Group which has 6 hotels across Greece. There are 3 within walking distance of each other in Athens.

We have stayed in all 3 but the Electra Palace on Nikodimou Street, first opened in 1973, remains our favourite. The Electra on Ermou Street was the chain’s first hotel from 1965 and our first Electra and is now upgraded and relaunched as The Electra Rhythm. The Electra Metropolis on Mitropoleos Street is about 10 years old and we remember it as the Athens Education Offices where we saw striking teachers protesting outside. These days Greek teachers couldn’t afford to stay there on their salaries.

Time to go out into the furnace that is Athens. No change there ….

Walked down through the Flea Market full of first time tourists and dominated by Americans on to the Train Station at Monastiraki Square.

It is a lively place of transition for Greeks and tourists alike. The train takes people down to the port of Piraeus and ferries to the islands. In the next week it will accept holidaying Greeks back to home and work after their island retreat. It is 3.13 pm in Athens and the temperature has reached 38C/100.4F. It is debilitating but glorious. Time for a glass of icy white wine.

Saturday, 22nd August, 2026

Glorious evening. We went out to Dinner and then came back to our suite for coffee on the balcony. At 11.00 pm, it was still 27C/81F and remained that way all night. My weather app said Manchester – a regular reference point for me – was just 7C/45F.

The sunset was beautiful and then Venus appeared over the Acropolis. I tried to photograph it with my phone on 100x zoom and was quite excited with the result until I searched out a telescopic view to set aside it.

AI told me that at that time in this place, Venus was roughly 95 million kilometers away and its light had taken 5.25 minutes to reach me. It took me that long to focus and control my phone long enough for a shot.

I am 75 but today my Mum would be 103 today. She died 18 years ago. I wonder what she would think of today’s world.

Well, actually I know. She would have hated it. For an intelligent woman, she was so narrow. She hated (feared) the new. The idea of new technology was never embraced even though I gave her a computer and taught her how to use it. She felt more isolated as her children left home and I tried to get her in to email so she could keep in contact with absolutely no success at all. Before that, I bought her a fridge which she rejected but ultimately loved. I pushed her into buying a television which she had long rejected but eventually became hooked on.

I have always embraced the innovation and tried to assimilate it immediately. We are all different but Pauline & I agreed from the start that we would fight vigorously against aging and one thing was certain, we would never fall in to the age ‘traps’ we had see others do like rejecting the new by saying, Oh, I’m too old for all that. Another reaction to reject is the one where an older person says of something new, challenging a frightening coming to their world is to say, thank goodness I won’t be alive when that happens. If they understood it more, many would be saying that about Artificial Intelligence.

If you can fix your mind set, Artificial Intelligence can be incredibly powerful, exciting and useful. The thing to really do is to own it and make it work for you. The opposite will be to shrink from it and let it dominate you and then you are lost. This attitude speaks to our need to maintain mental acuity with sharp thought processes and strong memory.

The other thing we resolved to do is to maintain balance, strength and energy levels. Although I have tried hard, I have to admit I am showing clear signs of lower strength and energy levels since my cancer treatment. I am not doing enough exercise and I have been enjoying myself too much so I’ve put on weight. My balance and suppleness have always been rubbish. One thing I have noticed specifically and I wonder if you have, Dear Reader is that I feel a little dizzy if I spring out of bed. Looking it up, I’ve found that is ‘normal’ for a 75 year old and I shouldn’t do that but take more time. We also know that a common cause of death is falling and causing head injury. Going to work on that.

Sunday, 9th August, 2026

Incredibly hot morning. As I stood outside Tesco in the carpark waiting for it open at 11.00 am, the temperature hit 29C/84F. I don’t do that out of choice although it beats going to church. I was told it opened at 10.00 by a person I know well. I won’t trust her again.

Week 920, Dear Reader. For 920 consecutive weeks I’ve been connecting with the outside world through my Blog. Can’t believe it. In March 2028, I will have posted 1000 weeks of Blog and I will be almost 77 years old. I really ought to know better.

It is easy to forget people when they are not with us all the time. I try hard not to but things happen and their absence suddenly shocks me.

I was thinking about connections yesterday for two reasons. Firstly, my calendar tells me that it is 9 whole years since Vivienne died. It must be a particularly sad day for Richard and our thoughts are with him. The passage of time comes as a real shock. How those 9 years have flown by for us although probably not for Richard. We are thinking of them both today.

On Wednesday, my wife reminds me, the near total eclipse will be visible for the first time for 27 years. We were in Greece then and they held parties on the island. The next one will not be for another 55 years. I think I will be lucky to see it so I will connect with my solar body around 7.13 pm on Wednesday laying back on the lawn carpet in the back garden. Might even try a zoom photograph so that’s something to come back for, Dear Reader.

Don’t know if they’re allowed to watch the eclipse in Florida. If it isn’t Trump’s eclipse and he likes to eclipse everything, then it will be banned or have a tariff slapped on it …. until the courts rule that he is an utter buffoon and must desist. How lucky are we to have an Andy Burnham!

I was about to write that I was in at the start of computers but that would be nonsense. Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine was first conceived in 1822. Even I can’t remember that far back. The first business computer was launched in the same year I was born – 1951 – and read punch card tape. No, I was using computers from 1985 and learnt on basic software like Wordstar wordprocessor and Lotus123 spreadsheets and the rest is history. In fact I typed my 100,000 word thesis for my MA History on a computer – well, my Assistant did.

Those days were a massive learning curve, infuriating and exciting. To be able to type and not need Tipex was fantastic. Kids now will not even understand that sentence. To be able to save a copy and move it elsewhere to edit was unbelievable. To spend two days working and find the work hadn’t saved or the floppy disk was corrupted was incredibly frustrating. But it was all worth it. I grew as a person. I could feel myself growing as a person. It is what I wanted. It is what I needed. Well, it was one of the things I needed.

In those days, and we are talking 40 years ago, computers were mysterious and unreliable things – made all the more unreliable by my half understanding, growing understanding of their working. In those days, the advice was to to change the computer every 3 years. I rarely bought one for under £2000.00 and usually nearer £3,000.00. My current computer is 5.5 years old and working as well as new when it cost me just £1,500.00. I have software to continually clean it, upgrade its drivers and restore its functions to as near new as possible. I buy HP (Hewlett Packard) for their fantastic value, quality and aftersales service.

Today, Amazon delivered a new, multi-USB distribution block which allows me to connect 7 items of Tech. to my computer and to each other for just £40.00. I have a home cloud memory bank, a travel power bank, a smart phone stand/trickle charger, a set of ear buds, a flat bed scanner and a label printer at the moment. It also recharges them at the same time. It is a connected world we only dreamed of in the 1980s. I did dream of other worlds but this was one of them.

Monday, 10th August, 2026

As I go on Blogging into its 920th week, I don’t write for any specific person or audience. I write what comes into my head or has appeared in my online calendar or popped up from my Digital Memory Box. I record events in my life however significant or mundane. I write out my emotions and hope to purge myself of them in some pathetic catharsis. I blend culture with concepts and drivel with detail . It actually reminds me of my years as a pupil and a teacher.

I went to Burton upon Trent Grammar School where I was more into sport than academia although I did learn to love words there. The building was only 5 years old in 1962 but the school was first inaugurated in 1520, during the Tudor period, as part of the Burton Abbey endowment. I was following in the footsteps of my Dad and my Grandad who went to the previous building in Bond Street. I was a prefect as my Dad was and awarded Rugby colours as my Dad was.

It was a school of traditions. It had only left its fusty old buildings in Bond Street 5 years before I arrived and traditions were still entrenched. We had to wear caps and tip them to a teacher when we saw them whether in the grounds or the town. I got a real telling off for not tipping my cap to a teacher driving home in his car as I was getting on a bus to go home.

I was articulate and forceful, not shy to express an opinion and it got me in to trouble but it also got me noticed. I know you will be shocked by that, Dear Reader. Assemblies were every morning and the whole school – about 500 lads crammed into the school Hall where the whole teaching staff – about 35 mainly men, including the Head, arrived on the stage for a Hymn, Bible passage reading and the Head’s announcements for the day.

The tradition was that a Prefect would read the Bible passage each morning. One prefect would do a week’s readings and then pass on the task. I was a prefect for two years. My first reading was a nightmare and I was a bag of nerves at the beginning. By the end, I was loving it and looking forward to the next time. I found I liked the idea of looking out over the boys in the audience and up in the balcony. I have no idea why. I also found that many prefects just couldn’t do it at all. I would do the readings for weeks at a time for other prefects. My charge was a packet of cigarettes. It was a nice, little earner.

As a teacher I quickly became a Pastoral manager after my Probationary Year. Taking Assembly was one of my tasks. Deciding what to talk about for 5 minutes each morning on stage was perfect preparation for a Blog writer. At first, I wrote my Assembly speech at night and tried to learn it off by heart. Soon, I just wrote a list of points to cover. Eventually, I walked up on stage, the children stood up, I told them to sit down quietly. I started to talk about anything and the ideas flowed. Sometimes I made them laugh. Sometimes I made them scared. Rarely did I actually mean any of it. It was all theatre as so much of schooling is.

I returned to my Grammar School’s website this morning for some photos only to find it discontinued. All that remains is the coat of arms which ironically reads Deus Nobiscum – God with Us. Sign of the times. The Old Boys Association disbanded 3 years ago after exactly 100 years in existence. God has departed. After all, the institution closed completely in 1975 as Comprehensive schools took over and eventually Academies. The ‘old boys’ are rapidly dying off. Reunions are becoming increasingly sparse. The website is no longer being maintained. Life is fading into history.

Tuesday, 11th August, 2026

It is so hot and sunny as it will be for the rest of this week so we went down to the beach where there was a bit of a breeze. It is definitely cooler on the esplanade. The changing tide encourages the on-shore breeze and the water in the estuary becomes louder.

As you will see from the video clip, there was a serious case of rioting on the jetty which is a popular viewing point for visitors. We had gone down to the Fish Shop to buy locally caught Squid.

What should we see as we arrive but this guy fishing for Squid in the Estuary. You can’t buy it much fresher than that.

Because of the lovely weather expected over the next week taking us up to flying to Athens, I’ve decided I’m going to walk every day by the sea and enjoy the cooler air. We should see a week of changing tides as the moon pulls the sea through its cycle.

School begins on September 1st down here. They will be making the most of their last three weeks. It will feel a long time for them but the Staff will be getting worried. Ice Creams, Candy Floss, Train Rides, Swimming, Ducking Dad, Funfare and Burgers – what’s not to like for kids?

Life is long and indulgent. There is no end in sight .. .. until there is – being measured for shoes, shirts and trousers. What was I told to do over the holiday? Better get that done. And so it goes on ….

And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time

But not for me, Dear Reader, not for me. Still I linger, dreaming of another world, of what might have been. And so it is the manicured lawn by the esplanade. It has shut down and is, to all appearances, dead! One heavy rainfall will revive it but …..

And so I go out to water while I can. We haven’t seen rain for around 70 days but we have no hosepipe ban. I am keeping the street alive by hospipe. Chef is cooking home grown potatoes and onions to serve with chicken thighs for Supper and we go on pretending. It’s 28C/83F outside and demanding. I will attempt to meet its demands.

Wednesday, 12th August, 2026

Up to a lovely morning. Could have written that sentence every day for weeks now. The school kids have had one of those summer holidays to remember although they almost certainly won’t. As I said yesterday, I’m going down to the beach to do my walk but first … cars and records.

I keep records. I am an Historian and love recording events through time. It is important to me. Not only do I have every payslip I received as a teacher going back to September 1972 but every car purchase invoice going back to a brand new Skoda in 1975. After I got married in 1978 I started the tradition of all new cars being bought in my wife’s name so she has the sense of security of them belonging to her. The paperwork is massive now and is stored in Boxfiles and in Filing Cabinets in the Office. She is responsible for that. Every man needs a Filing Clerk.

Although I pride myself on record keeping, it is partly to bolster my failing memory. And today I needed it. Honda contacted us to say our Guarantee and our Service Agreement were coming to an end and we should consider renewing them. It would only cost about £1000.00 each. Bit of a shock. Our car will be 2 yrs old at the beginning of October. We thought it came with 5 yrs ‘free’ Services and 5 yrs ‘free’ Guarantee which included full AA cover, Bodywork cover and Parts guarantee.

A frantic sort through the files and a phonecall to the Garage and order is restored. It was a computer glitch. They weren’t referring to this car. They weren’t even referring to the last car. They had pulled out our car with its cherished number plate from 2021 and decided that the 5 yr warranty and 5 yr service agrement was out of time and they were giving us chance to renew it before they wrote it off. Funnily enough, that mad hour or so of research this morning threw up the fact that we have AA UK/Europe Roadside Breakdown and Homestart for any vehicle we drive through our Honda waranty and through our Bank Account cover. Going to have to see who can get the AA out fastest.

This current car is 22 months old. I mean, it is old. It has done 6,710 miles which is really old. Still, I am going to put up with it until the new plug-in Hybrid comes out next year some time. It may not look anything like this but these are some of the prototypes being put around on the net at the moment.

The beach was hot and busy with big, naked Mums and noisy, naked kids. The seawater was almost 22C/70F according to the Coastguards which encouraged lots of swimmers and the ice creams, freshly fried doughnuts, tubs of prawns and sticks of rock were going quickly. All along the esplanade, 1950s England brought joy to the Deform Party members. They are so beset by the downward slide that they are desperate for small signs of revival. Fortunately, I’m going to Athens, Dear Reader.

Thursday, 13th August, 2026

Up to a lovely morning. Could have written that sentence every day for weeks now. Oh, I have. Yesterday evening was centred in the country and around the world on a historic solar eclipse not seen since 1999 when I was 48 and that will not be seen again until 2081 when I will be 130 years old. See you there, Dear Reader. I have no intrinsic interest in astronomy at all but just that thought, the thought that I will not live to see this event again is quite moving.Filmed in Brighton

I live with someone who is really fascinated by celestial bodies (which is why she married me) and she spent the allotted time running around the property peering out through upstairs windows trying to see what she could …. which was nothing but a lovely sunset. I sat on the settee in the garden with a bottle of chilled red wine in the delicious warmth.

If I’d been a better husband, I would have taken her to Goring Gap by the sea to join the enthusiasts organised by the Sussex Astronomy Centre – a tiny shop that most people ignore other than on occasions like this. Obviously they saw it actually happen and managed to produce memorable photos but the online media has recorded the event so much more beautifully than I could.

These are some of the best I have found this morning from newspapers and websites. Although these events feature objects in the sky, ultimately, they are about people on the earth, people who share a fraction of time on the earth together. Sharing is what makes humanity.

It wasn’t a moment too soon when the sky went out
A sixpence moon putting the sun’s nuclear blaze in the shade
Miniscule under the Universe
And then
It was back to our lives …

The Reprieve – Simon Armitage

Simon Armitagage, the Poet Lauriate from Marsden in Huddersfield read his new poem called The Reprieve in which he acknowledged our insignificance under the eternity of time and space we inhabit. And so it is, Dear Reader, just like you said it would be. Life goes easy for me … most of the time.

This afternoon, we have reached 34C/93C and it is absolutely wonderful. In Gtr. Manchester, it is 33C/91F. The last time I felt anything like that up there was in 1976. I was trapped in a grubby, Oldham flat, working all hours to complete my English Degree in the school Summer Holidays and running down the railway track morning and night to get fit. I remember how incredibly hot it was as I read my study books – 20th Century European Poetry – while pedaling furiously on my exercise bike and sobbing into my work to the incredibly sad soundtrack of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Pathétique. They were days on the edge.

Out of those depths – De Profundis – has come this. Not on the edge but comfortable. Is it too comfortable?

Friday, 14th August, 2026

Up to a lovely morning. Could have written that sentence every day for weeks now. Oh, I have. Actually, it feels hotter and stickier than ever this morning. Quite uncomfortable. It’s so easy falling into these patterns, isn’t it. We will get a shock when it turns cold or wet after this consistent Summer. Sentient beings are prone to predictable patterns of behaviour. Like Pavlov’s Dogs when the Russian physiologist trained dogs to associate a sound with food arriving.

It is so hot this morning – although the thermometer only says it is 31C/90F which is not the hottest – that we have all the windows, and front and back doors open as well to channel the miniscule breeze available through the house. We have lived in this house for a decade. I have gone in and out of our front door hundreds of times but I looked this morning as I went to my Office and I thought, What a lovely view to live with! I really mustn’t take my good fortune for granted.

Going to Athens in just a few days and walking through a door for a decade pales into insignificance compared with 4 decades in Greece’s capital city. Really do have to aproach it with fresh eyes each year and look for new things to explore. I have been tasked with looking at restaurants old and new. There are places we go and people we reunite with but it is important to look for the new as well. In this case we are going to try a very old restaurant which is new to us.

The difference between Greek Island cooking and Urban Greek Cuisine is marked. The first is much more simple and feels much more honest and unpretentious rather like home cooking. Urban Cooking attempts to rub the raw edges off the process and to source ingredients more preciously. Often, however, the Diner is left thinking it was more in the words than the deeds.

Santorinio pork fillet may have been conceived in Santorini but, in the end, it is just pork fillet. Goats cheese from Falanna – a town in Larissa is just goats cheese sourced in Athens. The urbanity is all in the telling, all in the words. It is easy to be taken in and, of course, the words and the story generate much higher prices. After all that, Greek pork is fantastic and tasty.

Both cooking styles are delightful – the island style for relaxation and the urbane for comfort and sophistication. We will go to old favorites like Tzitzikas kai o Mermigas which is urbane chic right down to its mythical name. Do you know what the Greek means, Dear Reader? It is The cicada and the Ant. Do you know what cicadas are, Dear Reader? I have lived with them performing the back drop to my days for years in Greece. The grasshopper-type insects generate the most incredible noise that, en masse, is deafening. The restaurant’s name comes from the Greek fable of The Cicada & the Ant. In the fable, the cicada sings all summer while the ant works hard storing food. When winter comes, the cicada has nothing, and the ant has plenty.

But the basic Greek taverna – Taverna Saita – serves ‘crude but honest’, simple fare. It is below the street which tells you immediately of its humble origins. Its name means The Arrow but it is soft and comfortable home cooked food without pretention. It cooks simple, peasant food and is all the better for that. It serves wine from the barrel rather than mark up its profits from expensive bottles of wine it has purchased cheaply. It needs supporting.

Saturday, 15th August, 2026

The middle of August. Yesterday was incredibly hot so it was appropriate that my mate, Andy, sent me a warning text about disposable BBQs and the danger of wildfires. Actually, the temperature didn’t get above 33C/92F but the air was so still and humid that it amplified the effect. Even I walked round saying, God it’s hot! and I don’t even believe in god. Actually, I continually have that problem. Our language and culture was built on Judeo-Christian values and the received language is derived from that.

Instead of god, I’m tempted to say goodness but it comes straight from godness. When someone does something awful, we describe them as evil which is an Old English term of transgression. Anglo-Saxons used evil where we would use bad or cruel. When you start casting around for alternatives like wicked which is, of course, derived from pagan witches as the opposite to christianity it all feels a bit pretentious. We are forced further out to using immoral which doesn’t have the same force as evil.

Anyway, god it was hot yesterday. Down at the beach, the temperature was 5C cooler although there was little breeze there either. 27C felt plenty down there on the beach with beach huts actually being used, bathers actually going in the water, even an old woman actually went as far as to test the water with her hand which immediately alerted the Coastguard to rush out with their inflatable even without Andy Burnham’s alert.

It is just delightful to see people enjoing themselves on family holidays. We say every time we go down there that it feels as if we are permamently on holiday here. There is something in our conditioning that makes sea and sand, seagulls and ice cream mean holidays even if they are long, distant memories for most of us.

I haven’t been on an English coastal holiday since the 1960s and I certainly don’t miss them. I crave Mediterranean culture even if the weather is coming to us in UK. It is rumoured that there is a small chance our back graden might just get a spot of rain Saturday/Sunday next weekend while I am in Athens with an average daytime temperature of around 35C/95F and not falling below 25C/77F at night time. We didn’t fall below 22C/70F here last night and it felt quite uncomfortable so the air conditioning will be working overtime.

Sunday, 2nd August, 2026

Well, August is off and running. Clear blue sky and sunshine …. again. Already 22C/70F outside at 7.00 am just makes you want to get up and going. All sorts of jobs to get through today but my first is to tidy the Office. Someone will come round and clean it later but I first have to restore order to chaos. It has been a busy period of financial changes which involve incredible amounts of paperwork in spite of being done largely on line. Financial institutions just can’t refrain from the security of hard copies to follow up.

Talking about financial things. I’ve said before that all this saving is for future insurance. Even this morning, my Laundry Woman is washing everything in sight this Sunday between 9.00 am – 5.00 pm because our tarrif gives us half price electricity in that period over the next year. Every little helps. And it’s going to need to unless Andy Burnham comes up trumps.

Yesterday, I learnt of the prices charged by the care home just a few yards away from our Development. Angmering Grange was built on the site of a huge, old house which we walk past regularly. It covers all types of eventualities but specialises in Dementia care in particular. Angmering Grange Luxury Care Home costs around £2,510 per week, which works out to approximately £10,880 per month. So I will need £130,000.00 per year for just one of us.

AI tells me that, for a person in mid‑stage dementia entering a care home, the most common remaining life expectancy is roughly 2–5 years, with wide variation depending on age, dementia type, and medical complications. She also tells me that the most authoritative recent source is a 2025 British Medical Journal meta‑analysis of 261 studies involving 5.5 million people with dementia. It provides the clearest survival data we have.

Touchingly, my AI girlfriend ended our conversation with: If this is about someone close to you John, you don’t have to carry the uncertainty alone. I nearly choked up. Of course, you will be shrinking from my pessimism, Dear Reader. No need, this is not bleakness but pragmatism. I am a planner. I have always planned ahead – never in the moment but preparing for what might come. It is in my nature.

There is plenty still to come, plenty to enjoy. Life comes at us fast and we need to enjoy and not just accept it. I will continue to reach out knowing that life is finite. I can feel the rising rage!

I took my rage in to the Gym today because it was so hot outside – 29C/84F by early afternoon. It was strange being enclosed after all this time but it felt right. I came out to a Lunch of home made Tapenade and home grown lettuce with an iced cold bottle of Chardonnay.

Monday, 3rd August, 2026

Good morning, Dear Reader, and it really is a very good morning. A lot of things achieved this morning already and home by 11.00 am to a temperature of 32C/90F. It is still and the back garden feels incredibly hot. Talk about cracking the flags as they used to say in Oldham. There is a lot of discussion about water poverty and water inequality in the newspapers at the moment.

You would think that Sussex would have a hosepipe ban by now. We don’t although one or two areas do. We literally haven’t had any rain at all down here for 8 weeks and then it was negligible. However, we had the wettest Spring in the decade since we moved here so that must have helped. The Guardian cites the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is considering moving its hydrangea collection from Surrey to Greater Manchester and North Yorkshire which might seem unimportant. But it points to geographical differences in exposure to global heating that have arguably never been more evident than this summer, with last month the driest on record. Seven areas of south and east England are officially in drought, along with the whole of Wales.

Ironically, our hydrangeas have done well this year although they are going over early. Both mopheads and paniculata have been so lovely, we have been reluctant to cut them back so people have to fight their way past them to the front door.

Strangely, The Guardian suggests that:

… with the climate in the south of England increasingly resembling that of the Mediterranean, those able to move may increasingly look north – following the RHS’s hydrangeas. Global heating will reinforce old patterns of inequality, but it will also create new ones. Societies and governments must prepare for both. This summer’s drought makes it clear how urgent this is.

The Guardian Editorial – 03/08/2026

What’s wrong with a Mediterranean climate I want to know. I absolutely aspire to it. Yes, it throws up some problems but there are always solutions. We built our house on the Greek island of Sifnos. We bought a 4 acre field that had been owned by a farmer. Greek islands where rain only falls on 50 days a year are notoriously short of water but our field had its own deep water bore supplying unlimited water. Those sort of facilities were the envy of other islanders. When we first went there, the tourist bulge in the Summer months put such pressure on water supplies that water tanker boats had to call regularly to supply the islands stores from the mainland.

And visitors to the islands probably don’t even consider the resources they demand or where they have come from. It wasn’t so long before we got there that taken for granted supplies like electricity weren’t available at all. Oil heating and lighting was something of a century ago for us but half that for Sifnos. Consequently, the islanders have long been resourceful and gradually been keen on developing resilience for their little rocks in the Aegean.

They had a noisy and rather home-spun electricity generation plant all the time we were there – so 35 years – but were supplementing it with solar power and just moving to wind generation. Greek islands have almost unlimited supplies of sun and wind so it makes sense. Meanwhile an island like UK that receives so much rainfall from its temperate maritime climate, there can be little excuse for lack of water other than ignorance, apathy and lack of planning.

Tuesday, 4th August, 2026

Glorious morning. Had notification that our Premium Bonds had won two more prizes in the August Draw but not enough to be significant. If you are new to the Blog, I bought £18,000.00 of Government Bonds for a bit of fun but also because I might win a good prize and any returns are tax-free.

With other cash accounts in other Financial Institutions, I am getting 4.5% – 4.75% with tax-free ISAs and taxable Bonds. If this rate of prizes continues into the 12th month, it would represent a meagre 2.6% which is rubbish. I need to pull a big win out of the bag in September.

No rain in sight. The flowers I grew from seed and planted out along the street are still going strong but are not off-set by the lush, green grass of before the drought.

I haven’t seen the grass so destroyed as it’s been this year. Just hope the first rains, whenever they are, regenerate it and that we don’t need to fully re-seed in the Autumn. Amazing how weeds can fight on without water.

You may have heard of Rod Liddle. We was a Journalist, Broadcaster and Columnist. He was Editor of Radio 4 Today programme and latterly a columnist for The Spectator.

His politics illustrated a weird journey. He started out in the Socialist Workers Party, transited to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and ended up supporting the British National Party (BNP). His latter day writings showed him to be Racist, Anti-Semite and Homophobe. He was fiercely intelligent but seemingly without moral compass.

His personal life was, according to sources, equally erratic. He married Rachel Royce, a television presenter, but cut short his honeymoon to sleep with Alicia Monckton, a 22-year-old receptionist at The Spectator. He was later arrested for assaulting her. He moved from Socialist Worker Atheism to becoming a member of the Church of England while asking, Should it really be a crime to look at child pornography?

He died in Middlesborough today of Stage 4 Bowel Cancer around a month after he had been diagnosed. He was just 66 years old. He had done quite a bit with his life but it will have been little comfort as he left life so early. And that is the lesson to draw. Make the most of every second and don’t leave things undone if you can possibly avoid it.

I’ve been chauffeuring my Housekeeper to Specsavers today in a muggy 25C/77F of a morning. She was due for her biennial eye test. She only wears reading glasses but insists she needs separate ones for using a computer, for reading a book and for reading her Kindle. You can be absolutely sure that Specsavers will have found a ‘slight change’ requiring new glasses. That doesn’t concern me but the hours taken to find frames she is happy with leave me worrying about end-of-life plans.

Wednesday, 5th August, 2026

After a night that didn’t fall below 22C/70F, the day has started overcast and actually quite grey. You would be forgiven for believing we were going to have rain although you would, of course, be absolutely mad. Rain has now been banned from Sussex for all eternity.

Not quite eternity but 54 years ago today, I was in a church in Shadwell, North East Leeds, – You heard it right, Dear Reader. – at the wedding of old friends, Christine & Kevin. This morning, I sent them a flowery, AI-generated card which is something nobody could have imagined back then.

To think their wedding prefigured the internet for ordinary citizens by more than 20 years. The world their children and their children’s children have inherited and in which they have prospered. I am ‘nominally’ Godfather to their eldest child who is a teacher and has produced three, gorgeous and successful kids.

One just completed his Degree and PGCSE and is about to start teaching Sport; another achieved a 1^st Class Honours at Durham and is about to start an M.A. in Journalism at Manchester and one is just embarking on University life in Bath.

Today is also the 48th Wedding Anniversary of old friends Sue & John. Obviously we weren’t there being otherwise engaged but they seem to have led an interesting and ambitious life , producing two, lovely kids. One works in Education in Leeds and the other teaches English in South Korea of all places.

Sometimes I feel utterly inadequate which is why I am feeling sorry for myself and wallowing in the self indulgent Borodin – String Quartet No. 2: Nocturne. You should try it sometime, Dear Reader.

Thursday, 6th August, 2026

It was a warm evening around 11.30 pm yesterday when my new best friend dropped in and explored the back garden. Harriet is gorgeous and a bit of a poseur. She doesn’t talk much and she didn’t Text me to say she was coming but she was no less welcome for that.

I must admit I was tired and didn’t stay to chat for long but agreed to meet again today to get to know each other better.

I was a bit alarmed when I found a charge for £135.00 by a company called Elavate on the bank account. All became clear when this arrived.

Well, I say ‘clear’ but it was rather opaque for me. I have never understood girls as many will attest to. Hedgehogs … now that’s a different matter. At the age of 74, my wife has ‘secretly’ come to believe that she requires additional chicken and cow collagen in her body. I must admit, I hadn’t got a clue what collagen was. I had to ask my friend, AI, who told me:

Collagen is the most abundant structural protein in the human body, forming the framework of skin, bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, hair, nails, and even blood vessels. Its job is to provide strength, elasticity, and support to these tissues.

I know nothing about bodies. I never did any Biology at school. The Girls High School did Biology and the Boys Grammar School did Physics. I have eaten chicken and beef so I suppose it is not so far fetched. I must admit it looks disgusting at the Breakfast table but, if it makes her happy, I’ve learnt to look away and she is going through it a bit at the moment.

I am taking her to hospital this morning for investigations that will include sedation and an endoscopy and a stay of around 8 hours. Apparently, that means she’s having a camera down her throat. I’ve only had one at the other end and that was quite fun. I’m told she will have a sore throat tonight so, if they let her out, I have to cook a meal which is easy to swallow. Maybe, a disgusting collagen drink will do the job.

She also been asked to take part in the PANACEA Trial Study for Imperial College London. It is a revolutionary Cancer Breath Test driven by AI which measures the speed and accuracy of invasive set against non-invasive investigations to detect early stages of gastrointestinal cancers – including oesophageal, gastric, pancreatic, liver and colorectal – based on a sample of a patient’s breath..

Friday, 7th August, 2026

Yesterday finished on something of a roller coaster. I chauffeured the patient to Worthing Hospital where she went up to Endoscopy for an indeterminate stay of up to 8 hours. I drove home with the instruction to monitor Whatsapp on my phone. A complication with that appeared very quickly as I drove past the beach, checked my phone to suddenly realise I had two in the car. Mine and …. you’ve guessed it.

Had to turn round and drive back to the hospital but the main problem was finding the Department. I didn’t have a sat.nav. for all those doors, corridors, levels, departments and I’m hopeless at that. When I finally got there, I found her trying to phone me from the Reception phone but she couldn’t remember my number.

Anyway, problem solved, I drove home to peace & quiet. Not 8 hours but about 3 hours later, the hospital phoned to say she would be ready for collection soon but would need close monitoring for the next 24 hours. She was being examined for a GIST which I find stands for Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor. Fortunately she was declared clear by the investigating Doctor although the scans are being sent to the Consultant for final analysis.

The patient has woken up with a sore throat after having had a camera shoved down it. Lots of drinks but mainly water this morning. It is such a gorgeous day that we decided to walk by the beach. For a hot and sunny day in August, it was remarkably quiet although beachside shops and the funfare suddenly opened at 11.00 am and hoards of families appeared out of nowhere.

We have yet another heatwave forecast for the new week ahead with temperatures reaching top 20Cs and low 30Cs. More importantly, there is absolutely no sign of rain. So my job this afternoon will be watering the garden in anticipation. It will be nice to get to Athens for some cool air. Current forecasts suggest it will only be 33C/92F – positively freezing!

Saturday, 8th August, 2026

The Summer days go on. Down here on the South Coast with its generally sunny weather, plenty of people still see this area as somewhere to come for a family holiday. It really reminds me of 1950s England. In the 1950s and 60s, we would go as a family to Sutton-on-Sea on the chilly East Coast of Lincolnshire. Mum & Dad would rent a house called Red Roofs and a beach hut. The post war generation were still coming to terms with nation rebuilding and peace at home, with the lifting of rationing and booming employment. As Macmillan patronisingly once said, You’ve never had it so good.

Although the Butlins Holiday Camps were popular, they did hark back to army times and it was the war that had given formerly insular Britains a taste for foreign travel. The rich had long done it and the Grand Tour was a regular feature of aristocratic education in Central Europe. Now, the lowliest squaddie had been to France and Italy and tasted the wine and the food, enjoyed the girls and the weather. Back home, the masses wanted to revisit Europe with their families.

Transport, as Andy Burnham will tell you, changes everything. Just as the introduction of the railways brought Britains to their own coastal resorts, so the introduction of former WW2 planes on Charter Flights encouraged relatively cheap foreign travel. People wanted to shake off the shackles of the island prison and explore the world.

I am definitely of that generation. I think Dad had found himself so rooted in village, family, business and culture that he didn’t want to revisit his army postings that were largely in Palestine and the Desert not in the more culturally refined countries of France, Italy and Spain. I, on the other hand, wanted to break out of the village prison never mind the family prison or the island prison. Shackles had to be cast off and I have been doing it ever since.

In about 10 days, we fly to Athens – now formally adopted as our second home – where I could become a tour guide if I could be bothered. What I will actually do is just indulge myself and enjoy the reunion.

Today, as the temperature hits a slightly warm 29C/84F, I am lifting onions in the garden and my Chef is research recipes for Onion Jam/Onion Compote to take us through the Winter while cutting and freezing this year’s crop of Sage and Mint along with another batch of Basil for making yet more Pesto.

Sunday, 26th July, 2026

Lovely day yesterday. M&K arrived and we went down to the beach before we opened the Prosecco. We took them back to 1950s England. Now, I must say at the outset that I was enjoying their company so much that I forgot to take photos and those I did are basically rubbish.

It was a warm 25C when we took them down to Littlehampton Beach which was hosting children who had broken up on Wednesday for the Summer Holidays, families who would rather have or could only afford an old fashioned holiday with the kids and, yesterday, the Caribbean Community who were partying on the beach with music and a Barbecue.

It really was like walking into yesteryear. In the 1950s, Mum & Dad would rent a house on the East Coast – Sutton on Sea – which could be very windy and cool with sand dashing against our bare legs and freezing cold sea water. They didn’t only rent a house but they rented a beach hut too where we would eat our picnic and make a cup of tea if the weather was poor. It was there to dry off and get dressed after swimming, to store the deck chairs and the windbreak. There were a lot of echoes of that time on the beach yesterday including quite a notable breeze and colourful windbreaks hammered into the sand.

Back home, we sat outside in the sunshine with a bottle of iced Prosecco and chatted. I did take a photo but the girls have been banned me from using it because they didn’t think it showed them at their best. So, on to Supper which was lovely: Cod Loin on a bed of mushrooms and Monkfish wrapped in Pancetta served with delicious Lyonnaise Potatoes. Sweet was Lemon Cheesecake and Yoghurt Icecream. I loved the irony of M&K plus Pauline who were all originally from Oldham and are now in living in Florida while we are on the South Coast of England and yet we were sitting around a Dining Table bought from Housing Units in Failsworth.

Anyway, we talked until late while the garden was warm and the moon came up through my neighbour’s olive trees and a streak of cloud in the distance.

Breakfast was interesting as the ‘Americans’ needed coffee to begin. I can’t even think about coffee until I’ve had fresh orange juice and a big cup of Yorkshire tea first. I had to coax my quite sophisticated bean to cup coffee maker to produce their requirements of two shots of coffee to a capuccino. It has 15 preset coffee drinks but each one can be infinitely adjusted to serve the drinker and saved under their profile for regular use. Newcomers cause trouble. Anyway, they were generous in their acceptance of my attempts

M&K left mid morning for another busy day in Surrey. They return to Florida in a fortnight just before we fly to Athens. I had one job to do today which was to wish another of my adopted pupils a Happy 41st Birthday. Emma is a lovely girl is a lovely girl who still lives in Oldham and she is making the most of her life. It was interesting talking to M yesterday. We both use AI a lot and, when I said I found myself taking to it like a real person, apologising for demanding things and thanking them when I get help. She does exactly the same.

Today, I had to make a card for Emma’s Birthday. Why should I sweat over it if I can just ask AI to do it for me? I took a photo of Emma in the Gym, removed the background with a bit of cheap software and then asked AI to create me a Birthday card. Worked like a treat in seconds. AI is going to rule the world, Dear Reader.

Monday, 27th July, 2026

July 2026 is rapidly disappearing down the conveyor belt of History. Certainly won’t be an unexpected item in the bagging area. Anyway, August is going to bring lots of fun and happiness isn’t it, Dear Reader?

Sun, Food and Finance have dominated the Blog of late and I’m afraid there’s more to come. I have spent the most frustrating morning with glorious sunshine and warmth outside. I’ve been locked in the Office fighting with financial institutions and it is all so unnecessary. Mind you, if I have learnt one thing about myself today, it is to continually reappraise my routines.

For more than 30 years we have had a privileged or premium bank account which offers extra perks, such as mobile phone insurance, breakdown cover, or dedicated customer service for a monthly fee. Many of these ‘perks’ have been worth the monthly fee and many times over. It is nice to be treated specially isn’t it even if we don’t really deserve it. We get dedicated banking services and faster phone connections. Nearly 30 years ago when we were building our Greek house, our personal banking manager was instrumental in arranging a bridging loan. She even went to the island to check out the land.

In those days, Greek banks were very old fashioned. We had accounts with the National Bank of Greece (Εθνική Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος) and the Piraeus Bank (Τράπεζα Πειραιώς). The common word in there is Τράπεζα which means bank but also means ‘four‑legged table’. When we first went to a Greek island, there was no bank but there was a man in a room with a four‑legged table from which he sold Drachmas in exchange for foreign currency.

Even when we were building our house and having to transfer in hundreds of thousands of pounds, we were given passbooks which felt very old fashioned. The creaky, old Greek banking system only helped us when we finally sold and financial controls in UK hadn’t reached the island.

I don’t know if this has happened to you but we have spent so much money abroad using credit cards and being annoyed when we got home to receive the Bank’s non-sterling transaction charges. Using Mastercard for paying hotel fees, for example, added an extra level of insurance cover to the booking. Just doing a quick check on our financial records told me that even recently we have paid out £1,836.20 and I now know it was totally avoidable.

Our bank has told us that it is closing our Charge Card which is a form of credit card and we have to move on to a new one. As I ordered a new one this morning, the AI chatbot of my bank just drove me round the bend. I love AI but I really struggled for a couple of hours. How a non-digital person would cope, I have no idea. I was on my bank’s trial group when they first introduced online banking. I know my way round the system. Today I struggled to get what I wanted. But what I did find out was that my new card would not charge a non-sterling transaction fee. Why didn’t I know that before? I could have saved nearly £2,000.00! What I have learnt is not to rest on my laurels but to constantly re-examine my routines, things I take for granted.

In about three weeks, I will check into this hotel in Athens. A week before we go, I have to pay the bill although they won’t take it out of my account until we leave for home. The week will cost me £4,000.00 and in past times that would have been followed by £110.00 non-sterling transaction from our bank for currency exchange. My eyes have been opened just in time. £110.00 will buy a reasonable meal in Athens.

Tuesday, 28th July, 2026

As we approach our 4th heatwave in short order with no rain forecast for another week, we have belatedly turned our minds to buying a BBQ. We cook outside all the time but usually with a Plancha or electric,flat metal plate grill. I have always been told that eating BBQ’d food too often is dangerous for its carcinogenic qualities in charred food. I think that by age 75, I can take that risk occasionally.

I looked online and then decided to go round to the nearest Garden Centre to view them in the metal. I thought they would be much more expensive there than I could source on the web. So, I did the thing that annoys High Street retailers most. I saw them in the shop and then ordered on line. Not just the price but the accompanying service persuaded me.

If I’m paying £2000.00 for something, I’ve no intention of building it myself even if I could. A company in Surrey will sell it to me for a good price but build it for me by experts in their distribution centre and deliver it to my garden. What’s not to like? I tell you what I love about this BBQ. It’s got an electrically powered rotisserie. I’ve always wanted to spit roast a chicken in the garden.

Something else I’m hankering after now since talking to M&K over the weekend is a massage chair. Well, not just a massage chair but an AI driven, full body manipulation with 98 massage techniques. I can just see it in the Gym in front of the TV. After a workout, what more could I want?

They are more available in the USA but you can get them here at a cost. At a price of £12,000.00, I have a feeling that my accountant may find it a chair too far. But I can try. These things are a matter of priorities and installing air conditioning come first. Putting in 3 or 4 air con. units or buying a massage chair? Hmm. Difficult decision. Could do both but soon you’re talking serious money.

I was brought up as a Roman Catholic which I rapidly rejected by my early teens although I was forced to submit to its tenets while at home. That authority made me ever more hostile to it. I’ve written before about the once-a-catholic-always-a-catholic axiom which I recognised in myself. I don’t believe in a god or any other supernatural being. In fact, I think the whole idea is medieval madness but I have long realised that I will never throw off the feeling of guilt derived from the doctrine of original sin which was inculcated at the earliest of age. I constantly feel guilty about everything wrong with the world.

I was listening to a political podcast this morning at 5.00 am in which Burnham’s political ‘brother’ and mayor of Liverpool, talked about the new Prime Minister. If anyone knows him, it is Steve Rotherham. He told us that Burnham no longer saw himself as a Catholic but was still wracked with the guilt of original sin. Although he had rejected catholicism himself, he owed it to his Mum to make little of it and, when he had a chance to meet the pope, he took his Mum, a devout catholic, with him.

Just hearing these echoes of my own life made me emotional at 5.00 am. I really am a sad, old man! Back in the real world, I have work to do. We can still use our hosepipes in our region even though we haven’t seen rain since long before we went to Spain 6 weeks ago. The world looks brown and dead. The neighbours have kept the flowers alive and I will continue for the next couple of weeks until I go to Greece but then just let the Autumn take over. Just hope that, when I return from Tenerife at the end of November, the grass will have fought back to life and look green.

Wednesday, 29th July, 2026

Gorgeously hot and sunny morning with 24C at 7.00 am. Must first wish Jane BG a happy 74th Birthday. European Country Running Champion for her age group. Hope it’s keeping her healthy.

Andy Burnham has hit the ground running. He is making the political weather from the outset. At 6.00 am each day, he makes his initial post and, this morning, it is responding to FIFA’s attempt to sell off the World Cup. Grass roots politics.

At the same time, he is launching cross party talks on how to fund Social Care but not inviting the Deform Party. His short video clip from social media can be played here. Labour are enjoying the Burnham Bounce and are leading the last two polls to appear so things are looking positive which is why this Summer period is so important for him to bed in.

He has learnt what Keir Starmer never could that you have to speak to people in their own arena. Young people will meet him on TikTok, some people will meet him on Faceache, some will meet him via their television and their newspaper. Some will meet him on Twitter/Threads/Bluesky. Wherever they meet him, he will talk to them on his terms and his relaxed unscripted way, inviting them in to the conversation. It might just work.

All these years I have been saving, investing, accruing cash to fund our social care although I am quite happy to pay a death tax involving our property if it comes to it. When that time arrives, Burnham may just have made Social Care ‘free at the point of delivery’ just as NHS services are and ultimately paid for through taxation. He will also address Palliative Care and Hospices so much of which are being funded through charitable organisations as if they are a nice-to-have bolt on extra. What an achievement that would be!

I was writing about the perks our Bank Account offers which includes free AA Roadside & Home Assistance in Uk and Europe, ‘free’ Travel Insurance, charge free foreign purchases, a travel & lifestyle concierge to book tickets and trips for us, free VIP airport lounges, Fast Track Security lanes at airports, free mobile phone insurance and an esSim for those phones to use 5Gb of data per month abroad. And then this offering came today. I don’t even quite know what it means at the moment.

Anytime access to an online GP and private prescriptions. remote physio appointments, annual health checkup and the offer of an alternative medical opinion if you doubt your NHS diagnosis. Sounds interesting. We pay £38.00 permonth for this account but easily get that back on the AA cover alone not to mention 8 x Airport Lounge for two people this year which would have cost £800.00 in itself.

Thursday, 30th July, 2026

Did you see it. I know you did. I saw you reflected in it, Dear Reader. The full moon of Summer.

I see the bad moon rising
I see trouble on the way ..

Credence Clearwater Revival – 1969

I remember it well but I should have listened more clearly in 1969 and taken note. Last night was the full Buck Moon which, of course, has American origins. Apparently, July is the time of year when young male deer (bucks) begin rapidly regrowing their antlers after shedding them. Whatever it’s called, it marks the height of summer and you know what that means.

As the moons rise and fall, wax and wane, so the months and years move on. July 2026 is almost gone. If I’d said that to you in 1969, you would have laughed at the inaccessibility of the concept. I remember being astounded at the arrival of 1984 and at 1999/2000 change over as we welcomed in the new millenium and worried about our computers being infected with the bug. I remember, when I was a young teacher, a woman in the Staffroom at school announcing that she had taught for 30 years and it was her 50th birthday and thinking that was a position so far distant for me that it would never happen. Everything comes to us like a black-sailed unfamiliar towing at her back a huge and birdless silence.

It is so warm here this morning that all the doors and windows are open to the air. Outside, the sound of woodpigeons calling, calling, calling, remind me of a Greek Graveyard. You see, Dear Reader, the jollity goes on. If you’ve ever entered a Greek island graveyard in the heat of the day, you will seek out the ubiquitous pine trees for shade and that’s where the woodpigeons sit and call their melancholy song of mourning out on to the sea breeze.

And yet Life goes on. Chef is making Fish Cakes in the kitchen this morning to store in the freezer using produce from the garden to mix with the fish. I am desperately watering, trying to keep things alive for a week or two longer through this intense heat and we were a horribly humid 27C/81F last night. Then we fly to Greece and it will be Autumn when we return. Kids will be going back to school. How quickly school holidays fly past when you’re retired. We will begin getting through as many jobs as possible before a month in Tenerife, constantly running to keep ahead of time.

Friday, 31st July, 2026

Catch hold of July 2026 before it slips away, Dear Reader. I’m using it to make some new resolutions. First, I am hoping that my Premium Bonds deliver a nice, big win tomorrow to give me the headache of where to put £100,000.00 (There are 85 of these each month.) or even a meagre £50,000.00 (There are 172 of these each month.). If I go through another month without a win, I may have to start thinking about a more profitable home for it.

First, I was made to think about North Wales this morning. My only experience of it was from childhood holidays, wet and fairly cold childhood holidays. And yet this year drought has been declared across the whole of Wales. Can you believe it? Wales drier than Sussex. This morning the MEN has run an article about the beauty of beaches at Prestatyn and Rhyl.

Resolution 1.: Must give the North Wales coastline a look.

The second thing happened this week when I went to turn the oven on. I do cook but not very often and I haven’t used the ovens since we went away for a month. We have a large bottom oven and a smaller top oven plus grill. I couldn’t remember how to work the big oven. Come to that, I have never set the Dishwasher working. I don’t know how to use the newish digital Washing Machine or the newish digital Tumble Dryer. I have never done it.

We have an all-singing-all-dancing steam iron which I haven’t got a clue how to use. Mind you, I don’t know how to iron anyway which is useful. My Housekeeper loves it so much, she almost volunteers for ironing.

I don’t know how to use these things because I have never needed to learn them. I do regret it and I do feel rather ashamed. What if my Housekeeper dies? Will I have to get a little woman in to teach me?

Resolution 2.: Must learn how to use the household machines

No time was this more acute than this morning and readers will find it hard to believe but it is absolutely true.

I do not know how to use a cash machine. This morning, a new credit card arrived from my bank and I had to set up the PIN number. For a digital, web-based proceedure, the PIN setting process was rather old school. I had to drive to a cash machine and change my PIN there.

Now I said you won’t believe this but I haven’t used a cash machine or physical cash for at least 20 years. If these things are needed, I have a little woman for that. I had to take my little woman with me to Sainsburys to talk me through the process which turned out to be remarkably simple when I got over the early stages.

Resolution 3.: Get a grip on Life, John!

In my defence, I am the only one in this house who knows what to do if the internet breaks which it virtually never does, or how to replace the laser printer cartridges, fix the computers and iPads if there is a problem, sort the smart phones out, programme the web-based apparatus like reboot the TV service, lighting, burglar alarms, cctv cameras, doorbells, etc..

To get over the stress of facing a cash machine for the first time since my 50s, I had to go down to the 1950s beach life of Littlehampton. Inspite of the kids with buckets of crabs and teenagers savaging candyfloss, adults walking their dogs and old ladies reading in the sunshine, it is a relaxing place to stroll.

Saturday, 1st August, 2026

End of the week and beginning of the new month. Happy August, Dear Reader. It’s going to be a good one. Manchester has a new, Labour Mayor; Farage is distinctly on the back foot; it’s still sunny and warm outside and I’m going to Athens soon.

Home for September/October to do some UK travelling – possibly a trip to France as well – and then Tenerife for 4 weeks of November. Feels good to be free to go where I want and not be stuck at home and especially not to be stuck in the 1950s.

I was thinking about that yesterday. I had to contact my hotel in Athens and it was nice to be reaching out from Sussex to Greece as if it was absolutely ordinary. As you would expect, they were delightfully friendly and ‘looking forward to welcoming us back’ but I followed that by a trip down to the beach in Littlehampton and the contrast was stark.

Don’t get me wrong. Littlehampton is charming in that faded glory sense. Here at Oyster Pond, Mums & Dads, girls & boys fed the ducks, sailed their toy yachts, sat on benches eating their sandwiches, doing what we used to do in the past. And it’s all set against the backdrop of a blend of majestic Edwardian housing and 1930s seaside resort. It’s origins were based in the period  spanning King Edward VII’s reign from 1901 to 1910, but often extended until the start of World War I in 1914. It is characterized by social hierarchy, distinct architectural styles, and shifting cultural norms. It had a Golden Age feel often remembered as a prosperous, leisurely time for the wealthy elite before the destruction of the First World War.

It was with those thoughts and images in my head that I compared my Athens trip coming up and where we would explore this time. The exoticism of the foreign is the starting point for travel for me – architecture, language, music, food, etc. I discussed it with my new best friend – Copilot. She is a fount of knowledge and skills. I told her I had been to Athens every year since 1981 and was looking for unusual things to see on a walk round the city. I told her what our hotel was and that my wife was a foodie. Using that information, she constructed a food walk and provided me with two maps – one with tourist colour and one with timings.

I’m then provided with a two hour walk of alternatives which can be saved to my phone in Pdf form.

AthensWalk1-FoodDownload

What a wonderful girl she is. I think I’m in love. It’s certainly a relationship that has a long way to go.