Week 925

Sunday, 13th September, 2026

A grey but warm day. It’s 9.00 am and 21C/70F in mid-September. Nice. While the weather is so pleasant, I am walking by the sea to kick start my renewed exercise regime. I’ve still got a head cold and a raking cough but sea air ceratinly makes me feel clearer. Walking in the reliable warmth of the Canaries is only 7 weeks away as the temperatures down here will almost certainly have fallen. Then the Gym will come back into its own and the equipment will need servicing and the remotely controlled heating rehearsing and re-checking.

What also needs rechecking – and I woke up thinking about it this morning – is the time we are in Europe. We are travelling so much at the moment that it feels like we are in danger of overstaying. As you know, non-EU citizens have to comply with the official Schengen 90/180 day rule. Schengen is initially the uniting of the EU countries by allowing their citizens free travel within the whole community. As a consequence, they have to officially control entry from outside just as the Americans do.

Many travelers misunderstand how Schengen works. The rule does not reset monthly or yearly. It works on a rolling 180-day basis, meaning every day you spend in the Schengen Area is continuously counted. Many assume their stay resets after leaving the Schengen Area, but in reality, each entry is evaluated individually. Overstaying is punishable by up to a €10,000.00 fine and a multi-year ban from returning to Europe. So, it is important to understand the process and keep on top of your data.

There is a Schengen Calculator which makes it very easy to check as I did this morning. It reassured me that I will have plenty of time to add trips to France maybe in December and certainly in Jan – March 2027. (90 days is essentially 3 months and it works on a rolling 6 monthly basis. I’ve got 53 days available and next years 6 weeks in Spain will have reset by the beginning of March next year.

In the immediate time, we have something far more serious to worry about. That is this afternoon’s Manchester Derby. I fear for them but it would be a lovely afternoon if United can lay down the gauntlet and beat City well. First, I’ve got to beat my own demons and get my exercise done. See you later, Dear Reader. Happy Sunday … if that isn’t a contradiction in terms.

Monday, 14th September, 2026

Time moves on rapidly at the change of seasons. No sooner do we move in to Autumn than the daylight range becomes noticeably shorter very quickly. Sunrise – 6.36 am and sunset 7.17 pm today. The Autumn Equinox is just 8 days away when Day and Night are equal length. It is still pleasantly warm down here and, I think across the country. 22C/70F again today and very clammy.

Just as the seasons illustrate the passing of time so do people. An old friend from College, Keith Lowery, would have been 75 today. I haven’t seen him for 54 years. He died last year of prostate cancer. I am so grateful for the year I’ve had and he has lost. It could so easily have been the other way round. I constantly have that thought in my mind.

Another friend, David Weatherley, who I also haven’t seen all that time has been chatting to me about politics and daily life. He was and still is a mad keen – I don’t really know what you call it – rock music afficionado. One of those sort of people who count spending hours in Record Shops looking for obscure recordings by unheard of people an enjoyment and then be utterly delighted when he finds a recording by Todd Rundgren. Yes, I’ve never heard of him either. David seems to idolise him and was photographed here at his performance in Manchester Opera House last weekend. I can see David in that photo just with added years and stirred.

We left our Surrey home 10 years ago and I haven’t seen this little chap since then. He was about 12. His mum, Rosina was a Social Worker/Probationer Officer and he was a gawky, little lad who came to me to have his bike fixed. Last night, Rosina proudly sent me this photo of his first year in the Army. She is proud at her achievement bringing him up singlehandedly. He is excited at an unlimited future stretching out ahead of him. I just felt very old, Dear Reader.

Prime Minister, Andy Burnham’s Dad, who had been suffering from Altzheimer’s for some time, has died today he announced. I don’t know him or his family personally but I felt a twinge of pain, of sadness when I heard because in their story we all go at some time in some way. Lives have these painful pinchpoints which we know are coming but hurt all the same. They graduate all our lives the loss of parents, children, loved ones and they mark us indelibly for the rest of our lives.

Unlike me, Burnham has stayed close to his parents, recognising the sacrifices they made which gave him the platform to go to University and into politics. In return, he has made them very proud. I don’t remember my parents ever expressing pride in me. It would have meant a lot.

Tuesday, 15th September, 2026

Lovely morning and I am driving up to Surrey to see Colin. Actually, my cold is still so bad that I may not go in to infect a bunch of old people. My wife will cut Colin’s hair for him and I will go walking round the lake. Very warm and humid this morning again, sweaty even. Sorry if that’s too much information.

The UK State Pension is subject to a Triple Lock to ensure that old pensioners like me don’t fall below the poverty line. It was introduced 2 years after I retired and well before I got the State Pension so all of my time it has applied. There has been an on-going argument that it is too generous and paid at the expense of younger Generations who will probably never get it. Already the retirement age has moved to 67 and will continue with human longevity progress. The argument looks at 2 ways of solving the affordability problem. One is to cut the triple lock down to keeping up with average earnings or inflation. Another is to make the State Pension means tested so no longer a universal entitlement.

On this graph of data, State Pensions will increase by 3.9% or £488.00 per pensioner. Teachers Pensions will increase by around 3.0% which will almost certainly be a lot more than their State Pension but, for the first time, the level at which tax kicks in will be below the maximum pension rate.

Personally, they can means test it for future generations as long as they make that clear at the outset. They can remove the 2.5% baseline now. My fear has always been that our pensions work and state would be out paced by earnings and our savings would be reduced by inflation. Fortunately so far, none of that has occured. We really have been the fortunate generation – and long may it remain.

Colin is one of the older generation. He was born in 1936 and had a hard early life. He has done mainly manual work all his life but saved and invested in his own businesses, bought and developed properties and made a good life for himself and his family. Not least, he has been able to sell up in Oldham and move to live in Surrey. He is in mid-Dementia now but nothing illustrates how far he has come from the poverty of much of Oldham’s housing stock to the sheer luxury in Surrey that his daughter has arranged for his final years.

It is an absolutely beautiful area over looking a golf course and lake, a club house and lovely restaurant. I walked round there today and the lake was full of the most wonderful wild fowel, huge lily pads and all surrounded by gorgeous trees. It was deliciously warm but quite overcast as I walked. The moment I returned to the car, all the clouds were dispelled by strong sunshine bursting through and Autumn was replaced by full Summer. Just my luck.

Anyway, I was tired and sweaty when I got back to the car having walked around the lake a couple of times. The hairdresser emerged having done her duty. Colin fell asleep half way through and then went for Lunch. The drive home of an hour or so was in beautiful sunshine and very light traffic.

Wednesday, 16th September, 2026

Blue sky, bright sunshine and a walk by the sea to come. The day is starting off well. Let’s hope it continues, Dear Reader. I’ve also got lawns to mow again. After just a little rain and plenty of warmth, things are really greening up.

The inflation figures are in for the year to August and it is up to 3.1%. The educated prediction is for 3.3% in September which is significant for those of us with Defined Benefit pensions which are uprated by September CPI. Inflationary pressure subsequently mitigated by raised interest rates and a falling CPI is the perfect condition for us to upgrade our pensions and pay good returns on investments. What fun! Having said that, did you know that petrol prices are up 27% year on year which impacts almost all human activity and it’s all down to Trump.

Lovely down at the beach this morning. So warm and perfumed by the sea. Where youth is ebbing away. I still hear you in the waves. Even though we’re not the same. Every tide that hits the shore makes me miss you even more. Out on the ocean’s rim I can hear the distant drums of the past, a past that leaves me as a hopeless bystander. An old man in a dry season.

Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.

T.S. Eliot – Gerontion.

You will think I’m mad, Dear Reader. Maybe I am but it is too late for that. A view like this must mean something. Some will say god or the after life or the absence of life. For me, it is all part of the nothingness which makes a life. I am a nihilist.

These people, hurrying down the road, making the smells and sounds of the sea the backdrop to their conversations about what to have for Supper, when to put the washing on or who will cut the lawns will almost certainly never stop and think of the view this way so, in that light, I am certainly mad.

I, Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea …

T.S. Eliot – The Wasteland

Time to go home before I really get carried away. Let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table; let us go.

Thursday, 17th September, 2026

Lovely morning but very busy. We had rain over night but it is warm and muggy now. Pauline has some problems at the moment so I am taking her to Worthing Hospital for a chest x-ray hopefully to illiminate one possibility. We are still waiting for an appointment for Oesophageal scan and biopsy which we are getting agitated about. It’s always the not knowing isn’t it … until you do know.

We drive along the sea road next to the promenade path we usually walk down. It loks beautiful bathed in sunlight with a pea green sea. The hardest part is parking at the hospital but I managed it and paid for 2 hrs initially but expecting to have to extend it. I pay through an app on my phone so it’s quick to do. Just £3.20 for 2 hours. Walked in – and it is a walk-in service – to find about 8 people waiting. Pauline gave her name and took a seat. I had just about logged in to the hospital wifi and she was called ahead of all those waiting. She was out and we were driving home past the beach within 10 mins of arriving.

September is a month of renewal for many. For me it is a time for addressing the excesses of Summer. I am exercising religiously and dieting strictly. That means firstly no alcohol. That will last until next June so for 9 months. It also means cutting out carbohydrates. The two things – alcohol and carbohydrates – drive my need for food. When I talk about carbohydrates I mean one specific category of dense, high starch foods like bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. I do break that rule in the morning with a bowl of home made muesli which, of course, includes oats but that is all I eat from getting up until 5.00 pm. In that time, I am currently walking 6 miles each day.

Supper is very early at 5.00 pm but, by that time, I am gnawing on my own leg. When I have this main meal of the day, I have protein – usually fish although occasionally meat – and a green vegetable. Green beans are my staple but also Brocolli, Asparagus and Lettuce also feature regularly. It is followed by Greek Yoghurt and fresh Raspberries & Strawberries. That is the discipline of the day for the next nine months.

The two sizes of protein are for passive and active adults. I consider myself to be moderately active and would usually eat the larger size. I would also eat two thirds of a bag of green beans. If I work on my Muesli providing 400 Cals, my Main meal would provide about 450 cals and the yoghurt comes in at about 250 cals so I am consuming 1100 cals plus drinks of coffee and tea with fully skimmed milk and some fresh fruit if I am starving. I am reasonably easily keeping within my parameters of 1500 calories per day which is about half what a normal grown man would require.

***All the vegetables here come to just 75 calories.***

When I do it, I feel so much better but it does take discipline and thoughts can seep in to the subconscious. Why am I punishing myself. I have limited time left. I should be enjoying myself. I have to work hard and push them away. Supper tonight is roast sea bass fillet with button mushrooms and roasted cherry tomatoes. Well within my target.

Friday, 18th September, 2026

Grey and overcast but warm morning. Gardening today although we’ve got a lovely week coming up next week. Sunny and warm forecast.

People often think I’m mad for writing a Blog. I quite often think so too but I do find that hour in the day quite cathartic. Amazing how I come to understand things by forcing my mind to focus on them and then put them into words. Often, I think about the events of my day as they are happening and find myself making a mental note to weave them into tomorrow’s Blog post.

Interesting to read in The Times today this article which highlights the catharsis involved in coming to terms with fears, anxieties, emotions, sadness, etc. by writing it all down. It is akin to the way our brain processes these things during sleep and dreams.

A process called “morning pages”, where people write three pages of continuous consciousness first thing after waking up, could help to offload worries, boosting productivity later in the day.

The process was popularised by Julia Cameron in her 1992 bestselling self-help book ‘The Artist’s Way‘, which outlined a method of unlocking creativity.

This is more or less what I do and have done for the past 17 years – all of my retirement. Words are my tools, my way of coping with happiness, sadness, and all things in between. Here, Thomas Hardy reflects on the death of his wife and how the realities, the meanings, the concepts of life are the last thing they reflected on as they looked away to the present moment and forgot past and future.

The warmth of the fire; the comfort of the chair; the music of the violinist all distracted him from the realities of human existence which are all too short and raw in loss and death. In some respects, loss and death are parallel if not equal.

I was watching Long Lost Family last night and the effect of loss is not just palpable but life limiting. People who spend their lives looking for loved ones are dominated by it and limited by it. There is a yearning: a deep longing for the deceased or separated person’s presence which often leads to Bereavement-Searching when they see that person everywhere in crowds of strangers. Sometimes each is looking for the other. It is incredibly painful and enduring.

Well we have put a shift in today. All the street lawns have been mowed. The flower beds have largely been emptied although a few have been left to fight on for a week or two. Our hedges have been trimmed and the beds weeded. The world is looking a little better. Chef is making a final cutting of herbs for the freezer. You can’t do that with Basil which we’ve got excess of but all herbs have done well this year and my favourites – Tarragon and Parsley – are abundant. I am absolutely shattered but I’m going to spend an hour in the Gym.

Saturday, 19th September, 2026

Wonderful morning – warm, sunny with high white clouds. It will be nice down at the sun for the Saturday Beach Run.

I have no real ‘pop music’ inside me other than fragments from 50 or 60 years ago which haunt the backdrop of my lifeline. I don’t even know what to call it these days. Pop makes me sound like a Grandad which I am not. My essentially old man daily soundtrack is epitomised by BBC Radio 4 and really has been since those early days.

I started listening to the Today programme at home with Jack de Manio followed Robert Robinson and then the rumbustous Brian Redhead, a former journalist on the Manchester Guardian like my old and now deceased friend, Tony Brady. Then there was the rather crabby John Humphries and so on.

The subjects were mainly National Politics and World Affairs. If music came into it, there may have been a report about the Last Night of the Proms or a newly discoved violin piece by Paganini. ‘Pop Music’ really didn’t feature. Recently, however, the programme has been trying to appeal to women and younger audiences and then, this morning, I heard this ….

Well, the sun is surely sinkin’ down
But the moon is slowly risin’
So this old world must still be spinnin’ ’round
And I still love you

I was transported back down the rabbit hole of time. It was written by James Taylor and released in 1971 just as they got together. The sound today was of an early recording discovered in the BBC Archives. It features in a new retrospective of her work.

Carly Simon had a baby, put it up for adoption and moved on with here life, separating from Taylor and married someone else from whom she is now divorced. Absolutely shocking to hear that Carly Simon is now 83 years old and living with Parkinson’s disease. There, in a nutshell, all our lives flow. Even so, I wouldn’t advise you to close your eyes in the expectation that it will be alright. Keep your eyes wide open and on the prize, Dear Reader.

Down at the beach it was wonderful and quite busy. Very warm even though there was a strong off shore breeze. It had brought out the weekend wind surfers in some numbers.