Sunday, 30th August, 2026
A lovely warm and sunny morning. The amount of rain we have had has been quite disappointing. We are just that bit too South. There is a downpour at Lords in central London as I write but no sign of it here. I have spent the morning relaxing and watching England ensure a victory against Pakistan – weather permitting. Football this afternoon to watch in the Gym. In between, I’m being rather introspective and I apologise for that in advance.
Teachers of my vintage will know about ‘Preferred Learning Styles‘. We were encouraged to identify them in children and tailor our teaching to suit all styles. And, if you thought you could do that, you are even madder than me. I think I know myself quite well. I am mainly Abstract Sequential but with some Concrete Random in there as well.
In an idle moment, I asked AI to fill out that diagnosis by devising a Questionnaire to interrogate me further. Above is what Copilot came up with.
Copilot interpreted my results for me and they more or less confirmed what 75 years of experience has done with my inherited personality. It is reassuring to learn that I have a reasonable balance of all the styles although Abstract Random is my least likely trait. Relationships matter but I plough my own furrow first and foremost. I tend to tell rather than ask. These are my weaknesses.
My wife has always said that I am on the Autistic Spectrum, although not actually Autistic, long before I even knew what that was. Copilot concluded from my resposes that:
That profile is compatible with autistic traits, particularly in communication, sensory processing, focused interests, and predictability. It is not sufficient to diagnose autism.
Some will find this interesting. Others will find it self-indulgent. I have always been introspective and punished myself for my failures. Even so, I can’t say I have made any real attempts to change. I don’t really think that I could. I have always thought that the first step to understanding the world is to understand yourself and how you relate to it. Self analysis is my strength and my weakness.
Monday, 31st August, 2026
It is 5.30 am on a gloriously warm morning with clear, blue sky as the light comes up. Actually, First Light or Dawn down here today is around 5:36 am with Sunrise at 6:13 am. On this last day of August, Sunset will be 7:48 pm. Why am I up and telling you this? Well, I’ve just been woken by a Burglar Alarm from my neighbours across the road. Kids go back to school on Tuesday down here and they have taken their teenage girls away for the weekend. It is sod’s law.
What to do now? Having pulled clothes on and rushed outside to check the property, Whatsapp messaged my neighbours and made a cup of tea, it is too late to go back to bed where I had listened to a podcast at 4.00 am and then just got back to sleep before being so rudely woken. Might go and walk on the beach before Bank Holiday crowds arrive.
I was watching the match at Old Trafford yesterday as torrential rain soaked players on the pitch. I shouted, Send it down here. At 10.00 pm last night the skies opened and the rain bounced down for about 5 minutes but then stopped and wasn’t seen again. Our long range forecast says we will get no more rain at least up to a week on Wednesday which is how far the forecast goes.
I wondered how the spectators would feel not just of driving back to Ipswich in heavy rain but just walking outside into Stretford or Wharfside to get the tram home. Knowing the match was on TV, why would you go out at all. I always feel that about cricket. Why would you go to the trouble of driving to a ground, paying for entrance, sitting in a seat next to someone you don’t know just to watch a game that you need binoculars to see properly, buy expensive and barely acceptable drinks and then use disgusting communal toilets? Why would you when you can get up-close television pictures with commentary and analysis plus replays of important events?
I just don’t understand it. After yesterday’s Blog, you will understand when I say that it speaks to my personality. Take Pubs. Please, take pubs because I really hate them. I think you could count the number of times I’ve been in a pub on the fingers of my hands. Why would I stand in a noisy, crowded room of total strangers to relax and talk to a friend where I have to shout to make myself heard and struggle to hear them. I just don’t get it. I don’t really drink beer anyway. When I can sit at home and talk quietly with a glass of wine. I don’t like small talk. From what I see of pubs on TV, small, inconsequential talk is essential.
I know it will appear strange by many – perhaps most – readers but it fits with an autistic traits diagnosis. However, you will get the point. I have friends who will drive miles and spend a fortune on tickets to watch a football match that is on TV. People who will choose to watch the same match on TV but in a crowded pub just to be with other people and share the experience. I cannot think of anything worse. I love people but on my terms.
It pays to make good, reliable relationships. I do that with anyone who I think I can trust. This morning, the wonderful Spanish property we rented for a month this year has been secured with a Deposit and a special deal. They know I am a reliable source of funds and that we will treat their property well. We are circumventing Casas Holiday Mediterraneo SL
The six weeks we have booked will cost me just €4,900.00 which works out at just £100.00 per day at current exchange rates. That includes all services superfast broadband and non-stop air conditioning. Wonderful. All arranged by my new, best friend – Valentina – who communicates in Spanish and I translate here then reply in English and she translates there. The love is universal.
Tuesday, 1st September, 2026
Happy new month, Dear Reader. The first day of each month is the time to check my Premium Bond winnings and at least I have won again this month if only two, small prizes. At the end of my first year, I have only won £475.00 which is better than a poke in the eye but not good enough so I will have to consider whether I continue with them.
September 1st is the start of meteorological Autumn. The start of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, of decaying natural life … In days gone by, it was a time for harvesting and storing food for the dead, cold days of Winter, of putting on warmer clothes to insulate against the long, dark nights ahead. It was a difficult season to get through.
When You Are Old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.William Butler Yeats
Even now, it represents the passing of time, of months and years of our lives. It will be my 75th Autumn and it does raise the inevitable question: How many more, Dear Reader? But things are not gone yet. We live to bloom another day. And the temperatures are still kind.
The Basil, which has been cut and cut and cut, is still insisting on life. Once established, it is tough and insistent – a bit like me. The patio doors are still open at Breakfast but the wasps are beginning to look for warmer places to extend their lives and our kitchen seems favourite. There is nothing more dangerous than a sleepy wasp if you want a sting.
The flowers in pots have survived remarkably well considering the long, hot spell and our absences. They are fraying at the edges – Aren’t we all? – but illuminating corners of the garden still.
And if you want a sound of the Autumn mist rising and ghosting the landscape, what better than the Chopin Cello Sonata: Largo. It certainly moves me.
Wednesday, 2nd September, 2026
Incredibly clammy, warm day but rather overcast. Got 8 weeks until I fly to the sunshine again. There is plenty to do. And we’ve got the joys of the North of England before that. I’m buying in extra suncream in advance. Thank goodness I can afford it.I had a nervous moment over night when I thought I’d lost a lot of money – thousands of pounds disappeared into the ether. Hot on the heels of winning £50.00 on the Premium Bonds, I thought I’d lost a small fortune from my investment account.
I logged in to update it to find all six investments read £00,000.00. Trouble was it was after Business Hours for the Investment Bank and I couldn’t contact anyone until this morning. I had been looking at the pressures on the UK Bank Rate and expecting a rise which would impact inflation and mean reconsidering savings & investments.
I had to wait until 9.00 am today to get through to them and be told that they had migrated all investment accounts to a new, more secure platform and I had to go there for information. Good of them to tell me it had happened even if I did know it was going to be done at some stage.
It is a constant fight to stay ahead of interest rates and inflationary pressures in retirement. Historically, as you can see from the chart above, UK Inflation is low and has been declining since I bought my first house although we did have a terrible spike in the 1980s. The government currently is under pressure from the international bond markets which are strangling its spending plans. I notice that pressure on Government finances has meant pensioners are coming under scrutiny again. Should the State Pension be a universal thing or a means tested benefit? Should the triple lock protection remain in place? It will be a brave/foolhardy government who take that up.
You really do have to keep up on a daily basis. We are living in an expensive part of the country illustrated by this article in The Times today. My aim, is to provide us with a good standard of living on pension income and suplement that with investment earnings while saving for the future which, eventually, will make very costly demands of Care upon us. We have been retired for 17 years and remain in the comfortable, top quartile of lifestyles. It is my job to keep us there as long as possible.
Thursday, 3rd September, 2026
A warm and sunny morning. It is a week since we returned from Greece and the wing mirror that got smashed as I drove from Gatwick is finally being replaced this morning. Honda told me it was a minor job that would literally take a minute. The Wing mirror ‘furniture’ is untouched. The electrics controlling it are intact. It folds in and out automatically and adjusts on the controls in the car. The little, orange, blind-spot warning light still works so it is a matter of ‘popping out’ the smashed glass and ‘popping in’ the new one. We’ll see.
Well we have seen. Replacing the glass mirror which literally took 3 minutes to take out and replace was £130.00 and they didn’t charge for labour. If the whole unit had needed replacing, it would have been £350.00 + labour. Grateful for small mercies.
In the week back, we’ve got through quite a lot of jobs that have been playing on my mind. I’ve still got to book an electrician to upgrade the lights around the fence boundary of the back garden but that is a small matter. I’ve also got to secure our suite in Athens for next year in the next couple of days but not many will be thinking that far ahead.
For me, the weeks immediately ahead are Conference weeks. They allow me to geek-out and enjoy the the fun that is politics. Today, the Deform Party is holding its conference of bile and spite in Birmingham for 3 days. What more could you want?
Well, I could want things that don’t hark back to the Fascists of Moseley Blackshirts in 1930s London or the paleoconservative politics of Pat Buchanan in 1990s America where he not only tried to take on the Republican Party and challenge sitting President George H W Bush, but the entire post-war order, the vision of America that has persisted for the past half century – America at the head of a free world. Buchanan ran on a policy of America First, America First. Ever heard that before? He told the electorate he would help them take back their country. Ring a bell? Nothing is new in politics as Machiavelli taught us.
Buchanan ran for the Republican nomination on:
- National sovereignty over global engagement
- Cultural cohesion and traditional social values
- Economic protectionism rather than free‑market globalisation
- Scepticism of immigration
- Non‑interventionist foreign policy
Of course, he lost but it has only taken 40 years for it to come round again. What we can’t afford to do is let that take seed and grow in the UK. We have to be expansionist, outward looking, open to the world.
Great to see a natural politician in PMQs yesterday where Andy Burnham made Kemi Badenoch look more like a 6th Form Debater than an adult leader of a formerly major party.
Friday, 4th September, 2026
Well, I take it all back. There is a god …. and he directed Channel 4 News last night. Few can be surprised that the Deform Party is susceptible to corruption, to looking for every way to bend and break the rules. Last night god delivered a saluatory lesson to the shysters.
I love Party Conferences but I suspect Deform will have their bubble popped if it wasn’t already by their slip in the polls. At least life is looking up … except for Nigel.
Of course Friday is Hairdressers’ Day as everybody knows. I am a taxi driver on those days. It is only 10 mins away and I can come home for an hour before collecting my fare. Outside the sky is gloomy with lowering clouds which suggest rain although no rain comes. Still very warm with high humidity.
Just read the Welsh poet’s lines by a Welsh beach reviewing his life through the experience of an old woman:
As the road climbs,
You will pause for breath and the far sea’s
Signal will flash, till you turn again
To the steep track, buttressed with cloud.And there at the top that old woman,
Born almost a century back
In that stone farm, awaits your coming;R. S. Thomas
Actually, a walk on the beach was wonderful today. Kids are back at school and the beach is mine. No old women but I can conjure up my own out on the distant rim of the world so far away.
If you ever wanted to get away from life, this would be an ideal place to come. It is not glitzy, not sophisticated. It is not tropical or refined but it is simple and beautiful, quiet and reflective. This is a scene to lose yourself in and dream of the world out on the horizon. I just love it.
Saturday, 5th September, 2026
September arrived and the switch was flicked. Sudenly earlier nights and later mornings are obvious. This morning, sunrise was at 6.20 am and when I walked in the garden at 7.00 am, the lawn/carpet felt chilly. Air temperature was the lowest we have experienced for 5 months at just 13C/55F. It is not death for plants but it is a signal to stop growing, slow down flowering, prepare for death.
Last night, the dark was so obvious as I looked out through the Lounge window. The sun set at 7.40 pm and outside began to look like the mean street of Winter. It might be all about the Earth’s 23.5° axial tilt away from the sun but, for mere mortals like me, it is an emotional experience. Rage, rage against the dying of the light ….
You know, wherever I have been, I have not slept in a bed since April. I sleep on top of the sheets. The test will be how long the house holds its heat for me to continue doing that. Will I still be doing it until I go to Tenerife for the month of November?
As the gardening runs down for the year, there are things to do.Because I am going to be away so much next year and particularly June/July/August, the gardening will be minimum and self regulating. I’ve decided to grow garlic next year.
September is such a good time to plant garlic: the shortening days and cooling temperatures encourage root development before winter while limiting top growth. This bulb needs virtually no attention other than keeping weed-free.
We eat so much garlic that it will be good to have varieties to try. They go on growing through colder times because their roots go down into the warmer soil below. You get an average of 10 good cloves per bulb so 6 bulbs will produce more garlic than we can eat but the neighbours will be happy.
It is a gorgeous, sunny morning and I am going out to the Garden Centre. Herbs will go on over the next year so need trimming up today. We’ve got a fresh bed of Parsley actually growing strongly at the moment alongside a huge bed of Basil. We expect days to be warm enough and long enough to keep them growing until we go away. Amazing how gardening helps one reconcile with one’s own life.
The garden follows largely predictable patterns and so does the sea. The ebb and flow of light and dark as the seasons progress alongside the tidal range. Tides are one of the most reliable phenomena in the world. As the sun rises in the east and the stars come out at night, we are confident that the ocean waters will regularly rise and fall along our shores.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.T.S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The sea was fully out when we got to the beach today. Warm and smelling salty and delicious, sea birds were gourging on the garden left by the water. Sea garlic, perhaps.
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