Month: October 2026

Sunday, 18th October, 2026

Gorgeous morning but, unfortunately, Pauline has been booked for an Endoscopy first thing tomorrow morning. We should be in Oldham marking the anniversary of her Mum’s death 16 years ago now which signalled our move away from the North of England.

She was the most lovely lady and she is always in my memory even if we can’t acknowledge her memory properly this month. She is permanently on my Office wall looking down on my efforts kindly and we will get up there soon to pay our respects to her memory.

My Mother in Law lived to the age of 96 inspite of losing her husband in 1961 and living a really hard life for many years. She showed amazing resilience over so many years. We always believed she lived to such a great age by dint of her incredible inner strength and determination. It commanded the greatest respect and memories of her are dominated by her incredible spirit.

I wrote recently that we were going to address the practicalities of resilience as the world around us becomes more unstable. There has been a significant shift in UK Resilience thinking over the last few years. The idea is often called a “whole of society” approach, meaning government, businesses, communities and households all have a role in coping with major disruptions.

Households are urged to address home resilience as the world around us becomes more unstable. They are thinking of Climate Change producing weather changes which threaten food production and threaten power generation and delivery. They are also thinking of world political instability threatening food imports and power imports and communications. You only need an expansionist Putin to send a couple of submarines to cut power, gas and internet cables under sea to completely collapse our normal world. He is already testing the boundaries and renewed European support for Ukraine will push him to be more reckless.

You may find this fanciful but we are taking it seriously and even more so since we lost our internet feed for a while. Every major event in our house revolves around internet use and we were left floundering without it. Even if you are in the dark ages still, Dear Reader, think about a shopping trip. Can you walk it if there is no fuel for your car for a while? When you get to the supermarket, can you buy anything without use of your credit card? Can the shop sell you anything without their powered and internet connected sales points?

By this stage, you will think I am stark raving mad but it may just be that I have the last laugh if the worst comes to the worst. Above is what we are urged to collect and retain for emergencies. I’ve ordered emergency lighting which is essential and a power bank to recharge our smart phones which could be used for internet access as well. We are building a store cupboard collection of tinned foods, water and medicines. We have both electricity and gas for cooking. Hopefully, both won’t go down simultaneously otherwise, I will be lighting a firepit outside.

If you think we are preparing for a risk that will never come, just think about Trump, Musk, Putin, Xi Jinping or Netanyahu and how all that is working out just now. It is hard to think of more fertile ground for World War 3 than we are in at the moment. A young man sent me this from Florida this morning. It is a photo of the latest launch of Space-X. Musk is a fascist and has delusions of grandeur. Don’t underestimate his ability to influence world instability for his own ends.

Monday, 19th October, 2026

Lovely morning. Had to be up at 6.00 am. Delivering my wife to Worthing Hospital for 7.30 am where she is having urgent investigations mainly via Endoscopy with Biopsy included. She hasn’t been able to eat or drink since last night which is a bit of an issue and she has been warned she could be there for 8 hours which is an ordeal in itself.

My problem is that I will have to make my own drinks and maybe even have to cook for myself. It is so long since I did that I hope I can manage. The drive to the hospital and back goes down the Beach Road and I snatched the opportunity to get a shot of the sun rising over Worthing Pier on the way home. Everybody else around me was going to work and there was I – redundant and with time on my hands.

I got a phone call to return to the Hospital to pick the patient up from the West Wing. I was told that she was in Recovery and would be for about another hour. The traffic was awful; the carpark was worse and I was late. Thank goodness she was in West Wing, that’s all I can say. What a welcome!

She didn’t appear for another 30 mins after additional recovery needed. The bad news is that she has tumours in her oesophagus and upper stomach. The good news is that the consultant said to be the best in the area for these sorts of things is convinced the tumours are benign and has already removed 80% of them. We will know soon.

Tuesday, 20th October, 2026

A dark morning of heavy rain. Still warm but very wet. First on the Agenda today is a trip to the Surgery Pharmacy for our Covid+Flu injections.

The current dominant COVID-19 strains circulating globally and in the UK are XFG known as Stratus or the American strain with symptoms including a high temperature, continuous cough, sore throat, congestion, fatigue, and muscle aches. Even so, Hospital Admissions are increasing because of it and we certainly don’t want to be part of that. In two weeks, we will be sharing our oxygen with 200 other people on a plane and that is a breeding ground for infection.

I walked into a small office in Kamsons Pharmacy where a 5th Former was sitting behind a desk. I asked him if he was on Work Experience. He told me he was 22 years old and 23 next Thursday. I didn’t know that was still allowed. Bit of a shock. Anyway, in spite of being nervous and forgetting to swab my arm first, he delivered two injections painlessly and I managed to stagger back to the car.

A wet day means Gym work but before that I have to sort out the Office. Over time, everything gets messy and overblown and needs revisiting. The Office/Study has continually had add-ons and removals over the past 10 years. I started off with two laser printers but gradually needed more space and ditched the mono one, upgraded the colour one and installed a printer sharer so both computers could easily share it.

You can’t see a lot of it but, behind the scenes, there is a cats cradle of plugs, leads, sockets, etc. which I have pushed to the back and tried to ignore for years. The recent Broadband Router problem has caused me to revisit that nightmare of connections. Although the broadband feed is sorted out now, I spoke to BT management last week who agreed to send an engineer to do a Health Check on my system. He is coming tomorrow afternoon. My first thought was: must sort out the cable mess. My Housekeeper’s first thought was: must clean the Office and especially behind the desks where I am not usually allowed to go.

She will be allowed to go. Recovered largely from yesterday’s ordeal, she will be allowed to go down on all fours to clean under the desk although taking great care about the cables. I will pass her sweets to soothe her sore throat from the cables shoved down her gullet. As long as it’s all ready for the BT engineer tomorrow.

Wednesday, 21st October, 2026

Gloomy and heavy rain outside. I’m in my newly cleaned and tidied Office/Study reading the statistics that will define our Pension Income for the next tax year.

The inflation (CPI) rate and the Earnings Rate for September have been released and those are the figures on which our Pensions are calculated. The relevant earnings growth figure has previously been confirmed as 3.9%, and September’s inflation figure was confirmed to be lower than this on Wednesday morning – at 3.5%. This means that Teachers’ Pensions will rise by 3.5% (CPI) and State Pensions will rise by Average Earnings which is higher than CPI &/or 2.5% at 3.9%. It is one of the few times since I retired nearly 17 ago that Teachers’ Pensions will be beaten by Earnings.

What it does mean is that for the first time State Pensions will move into the taxable bracket for those who have a second pension. People who rely solely on State Pensions will not be taxed. It could all be a lot worse.

This afternoon I’ve got an Openreach Engineer coming to give my system a healthcheck which is why the Office has been cleaned so comprehensively. I don’t usually allow her to go near all the cables behind the desks in case she destroys my system. I pay for Halo-3 coverage. It costs me about £100.00 per month but then runs my entire house. It comes with guarrantees of speed delivery and support services that is something of a belt & braces cover.

As a regular reader you will know that it has been certainly put to the test over the past couple of weeks. However, after 25 years with BT Broadband, I am trying to be patient and work my way through the process. I’m looking forward to discussing it with a professional.

Thursday, 22nd October, 2026

Lovely morning of blue sky and sunshine. Raises the spirits as darkness envelopes our world increasingly at either end of the day. Clocks go back this weekend. Darkness will fall even earlier. On our coast Saturday’s sunset will be 5:53 pm and Sunday’s will be at 4:51 pm. Sunrise on Saturday will be 7:38 am and on Sunday at 6:40 am. Unofficial Winter begins. Time for Tenerife and some Canarian warmth.

I have to apologise for failing to acknowledge the twins – Mike & Liz’s Birthday yesterday. I was rather preoccupied with my own, digital problems. Here they are, probably in Wales, on holiday with Mum and Caroline as well.

This is how I remember them at their most sophisticated and it comes as a real shock when my calendar tells me how old they are. They were born in 1957 when I was 6 years old. I remember them being born. Mum had been warned that her life could be in danger from the pregnancy. As a resolute and devout Catholic, she went ahead regardless.

To think those two, annoying little amoebas are 71 years old just fills me with horror for my own existence. I was reading the obituaries from the Huddersfield Examiner yesterday in an idle moment – as you do – and the number of people who were dying at age 76 was shocking.

Yesterday went well. A technician spent an hour with me and decided that there was noise/dirt on the fibre cabling which BT would have to clean for me. They will use a very expensive, specialised infra red light cleaner which he didn’t have. My Broadband is working well now but not up to the standard I pay for hence the follow up visit.

Almost 25 years ago, I was diagnosed as Type 2 Diabetic and I’ve been taking a drug called Metformin daily ever since. It lowers blood glucose levels by decreasing liver sugar production and improving insulin sensitivity. I had abused my body by eating and drinking too much for years and was paying the price.

I was so shocked, I started dieting ferociously and, as a direct result, my Type 2 went away. In fact, I ceased to be even pre-diabetic. All the drugs I was taking were no longer needed and removed apart from Metformin. Not every cloud has a silver lining but it looks like Metformin does. It is currently being trialled because it is believed to slow the deterioration of memory and thinking skills in people with Alzheimer’s. We can only hope.

Friday, 23rd October, 2026

This house has been far out at sea all night,
The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,
Winds stampeding the fields under the window
Floundering black astride and blinding wet …

Wind – Ted Hughes – 1957 from Hawk in the Rain

Heavy rain and strong winds all night made sleeping difficult and there is standing water in the darkness in the street this morning. Up early because I have a BT Openreach Engineer to ‘clean’ the fibre cables to my home. Of course, by sod’s law, I’ve tested my system this morning with this result. Not perfect but certainly acceptable.

When I established the first Dialup internet with the crashing noise as it looked to connect, I was getting in 1996: just 33.6 kbps. Today’s download speed of 986 mbps is some 26,000 x faster. Of course, so much has changed. In the early days – 30 years ago – I was dialling in to read a few lines of text and I was very excited. Today, words, graphics, sound and video are all carried along with connections to drive all the apparatus of a house.

Before broadband, connecting to the internet meant waiting for a modem to dial a phone number and negotiate a connection, often accompanied by a chorus of electronic squeals and crackles. Seeing this screen was the gateway to the online world. It often took 5 attempts to connect to the line and just as often failed to connect at all. It was very frustrating and any problems we have now are minor and infrequent in comparison.

It is the birthday of my God daughter. I think she is 51. You might ask why a confirmed atheist could be a Godfather and I wish I could answer concisely. It was a long time ago. She is the daughter of my friends, Christine & Kevin, and I was pressed to take the role. I didn’t feel able to refuse. Even so, I remember feeling incredibly awkward and hypocritical in the church service. Subsequently, I have been the worst Godfather known to man but I remember Julia’s birthday and it constantly makes me feel old.

Saturday, 24th October, 2026

It is damp and not particularly warm outside. We are forecast to be wet and windy today. If you want me, I’ll be in the Office or the Gym or the Lounge. Don’t look for me outside. I will not be there. My Housekeeper is steam-cleaning the settees and Lounge chairs after she has finished the carpet.

It is early Spring Cleaning. She doesn’t want to go away and leave the house looking less than pristine. Seems absolutely manic but she is worried that there will be a problem while we are away and the neighbours will be forced to use their key to come in and they’ll find what a shabby housekeeper she is.

Anyway, the Shark CarpetXpert and steam cleaner comes out and the world becomes a whirlwind for a while. I retreat to the Office and close the door. I have learnt over the years that it’s better that way. The machine has a container for cleaning fluid and a container for dirty water which periodically has to be emptied.

My Housekeeper seems to have this maniacal delight in finding how much dirt was in the carpets and furniture and is now sloshing around in the waste water. Not only that, she is utterly incapable of tipping it down the sink without showing it to me first. I must say, I am not impressed which constantly disappoints her. She wants me to be amazed and I just can’t summon it up to reward her for her efforts. In fact, my biggest problem is the fact that carpet and furniture stay damp for some time afterwards and I am banned from the Lounge. Not satisfied with it being damp outside, she delights in making it damp inside as well.

I will have to go in the Gym to watch the football at Lunchtime. It is not too much of a hardship although I am rather disturbed by the half empty wine racks behind me when I do. It is now two full months I have done without alcohol but I haven’t booked a shopping trip in France to re-stock them quite deliberately. I am determined to get through until June 1st without touching wine at all. It is an exercise in self-discipline for me not some sort of crusade towards Methodism. I am not aiming at becoming a Blue Ribboner.

I love wine. I love red wine. I even know exactly the bottle I will open on the day before I fly to Spain for 6 weeks in the Summer. I just choose to not drink it now. And, you know, it is not troubling me at all. For two months, I haven’t even thought about wine other than the empty spaces on the wine racks in the Gym which do rather disturb me. Every bottle I don’t drink is 600 calories less on my total for the day. To burn that off, a man of my age would need to do 3 hours 29 mins brisk walking at 3.5 mph. That’s quite a commitment.

I’ve done this twice before when I didn’t drink for 9 months. People said to me I should just stop altogether. They may be right but can you imagine living the rest of your life denying yourself things you love?

You get these sorts of articles in newspapers every day but this one chimed with me. Life is for enjoyment. I am not prepared to be denied the things I want and which make me happy. What I am not prepared to accept is to see them control me. I want to be in control which is why I am doing what I am currently. Most of us want a long life. We want a long, healthy life. We want a long, healthy and a happy life. There are compromises to be made all along that path.

Sunday, 11th October, 2026

Happy Sunday …. not. I hate Sundays for lots of reasons but today I am stressed as hell. I have spent another 4 hours in discussions with BT Broadband and I have narrowed the problem down to my Router which needs replacing. I have to ask for a new one to be sent tomorrow.

The analysis of my problem was done by my AI client at home. BT’s AI client has done everything it can to stop me talking to a human being at their end. There you see the two sides of the phenomenon that is Artificial Intelligence. And so it will be in the world. One side of the interaction will be totally depersonalising. The other side will see the incredible service AI can give to humanity.

Even my door uses AI and internet. When my router went down, I didn’t just lose computer connections. I even lost my doorbell. What would I have done if you’d called round just then, Dear Reader? Fortunately, you can come now because I’ve sorted it.

You could have been this woman reported in the Sunday Times today. She has Parkinsons and had fallen into a non-stop phase of continuous siezures. The family rushed her to hospital where they were warned she was close to death.

Her son consulted AI about her condition and rapidly found that her condition was caused by a vitamin deficiency brought on by her Parkinsons drugs. Quickly she was given an infusion of Vitamin B6 and was saved to live another day. Experts are now investigating whether sufferers of Parkinsons may all benefit from B6 injections to slow the development of their disease. This is what AI will increasingly do for us over the next decade.

It is a little cooler here although I haven’t been out much. Stuck in my Office was not what I anticipated for today. Just 18C/64F here today and a customary 22C/70F in the Canaries.

Looking forward to this but first the North of England and a current temperature of just 13C/55F. Brrr. When we went to see M in Surrey last week, she had the heating on. Mind you, she is very skinny and had just landed from Florida. Hopefully, we won’t need ours until we come back from Tenerife in December. It’s a game we like to play. All part of being young at heart.

Monday, 12th October, 2026

A grey but warm morning. We were 16C overnight which is excellent for October. Things are still growing strongly in the garden. Summer flowers are still flowering beautifully. I’ve even got self-seeded tomatoes fruiting outside. You will be pleased to read that I am happier this morning, Dear Reader, because my problems of the past few days ‘appear’ to be sorted out and my right hand, aka my smartphone, is almost more efficient now than before. My weight is coming down nicely and I am boosted enough to go back in the Gym this morning.

The next few days are going to be about preparing for weeks of travelling. My IT set up was so important for that. While I am away in UK or Abroad, I control my Home functions – Heating, Lighting, Security and Doorbell, Bank Accounts, etc. across the net from my phone, iPad or Laptop. It means I can be away for weeks without worrying.

I am alerted via the internet through a variety of apps – one for security cameras, one for the doorbell, one for the heating and lighting apart from the Gym which is a later addition and is controlled separately. If the temperature outside falls too low, the thermometer in the Gym alerts me that my fragile, computer controlled Gym Equipment is in danger and I use another app to switch the separate heating on.

The house can be vacuumed while we are away through the robots, Alexa will play music or the radio around the house and I can monitor my spending at the Banks and Charge Cards. I like to feel in control which is why the past few days for me have been a nightmare. I lost control completely. Control freak loses it!!

These are my instruments of control. Of course I’m not the only one. They are used by millions of people and they will become increasingly prevalent. I have been reading about the internet of things for years. At last it is here and making life so much more easy …. most of the time.

It is already controlling our Washing Machine and Tumble Dryer, our Honda car and our TVs. I expect it to become ubiquitous in Fridge/Freezers to monitor contents in terms of dates, etc, and start to automatically order replacements.

Soon my glasses will be linked to the net and my clothes will alert the Health Service to my heart health and my atrial fribrillation. It’s very exciting but it is important to keep on top of the innovations and not to be scared of them.

I suspect my little friend in Benidorm with his pint of beer will be largely oblivious to this as he sings his karaoke but it will come even to him. After all, he is a sci-fi buff and will already be anticipating time travel.

Tuesday, 13th October, 2026

It has been an amazingly warm night for mid October at 18C/65F. I will even accept this grey, damp start to the day in exchange. It is the same across much of the country and some of Europe.

A quick swoop on Worthing, Rochdale and Sherburn in North Yorkshire tells a tale. It was pouring in Yorkshire an hour ago but is now beautifully sunny. The weather has moved over Rochdale and Greater Manchester. I won’t be walking by the sea in Worthing until this afternoon.

I flew on to Milan’s Duomo in Italy to find a lovely day but quite busy. But then I had a look at Kevin in Benidorm doing aerobics on the beach after his hard night out and the weather looks lovely. Finally, I swooped down to the beach in Costa Adeje, southern Tenerife and, as you can confidently predict, the weather is just right for open air living.

They are obviously waiting for me although they may be disappointed because the beach is not where I want to spend my days. I will be walking past but that’s all.

By the time I’d got to the beach for my walk this afternoon, the skies had cleared, the sun appeared and all was well with the world. Where better place to die ….

Wednesday, 14th October, 2026

Gorgeous, warm morning with blue sky and sunshine. No consideration about what to wear – automatically shorts and tee shirt. I’m going to the Beautician’s for a facial this morning. Well, not for me exactly. I’m not sure she could improve on my face but I’m chauffeuring my Housekeeper there for a 9.00 am appointment.

After a facelift or whatever it was, I picked her up and we drove down to the South of France otherwise known as Littlehampton Marina. These Canarian Palms flourish in the South Coast climate which clearly lengthens the lives of the residents down here.

It was just astonishing to think we are in mid-October and experiencing temperatures hovering around 70F most days. If only this could stay year round across the country like it does in the Canaries. Our heating bills would be miniscule.

Anyway, I’m here now and I will soon be in the actual Canaries. So life could be worse. Might snow in Yorkshire & Lancashire but we’ll see. Hopefully not.

Talking about seeing. These observers in the crow’s nest of harbour yachts seem very content with their living conditions.

Thursday, 15th October, 2026

Wonderfully warm night at 18C/65F and so it is this morning. While the North West of England is being enveloped in heavy rain, I will be cutting the street’s lawns, tidying up the garden, finish planting out for next Spring and getting the area ready for Winter. It will certainly come at some stage.

Today, my Dad – Eric Richard Sanders – would be 111 years old. In reality, I haven’t seen him since 1965. He died in Burton General Hospital of a heart attack. I was 14. The more time has gone on, the less I thought about him other than the effect his untimely death had on our family. In the intervening time, I’ve seen other kids’ relationships with their Dads and thought: Mine wasn’t like that at all. I don’t remember any Dad to Son chats, friendships, cuddles. I don’t remember my Dad every complimenting me on an achievement. He never came to watch me play rugby or run in the athletics.

He was a product of a late Victorian, early Edwardian family himself and really didn’t seem to know about these sorts of things. My Grandfather didn’t show affection or support at all but, when I passed the 11+ to go to Burton Grammar School where he went, he rather formally presented me with an expensive leather satchell with my initials – J.R.S. – emblazoned on it in gold lettering. My Dad, who was a notable rugby player himself, never came to watch me in a game even though I was doing well in the sport but he did buy me the latest Bleddyn Williams rugby boots to compete in.

I tell myself that he was a product of his time but many of my friends of a similar age had a very different experience and I look back regretfully. I don’t resent it but I can see the tensions that would have come from it if he had lived. At least I am able to acknowledge the character traits he gave me and those I escaped.

I was made shortly after this photo on the left. It must have been a great day. Certainly momentous for me, Dear Reader. Unfortunately, as in so many other things, I would have disappointed him by not continuing the line. It has taught me something though. You have to be your own person not your father’s son.

Dad would hate my politics, probably hate the fact that I didn’t take on the family business and hand it down the line. He would probably not approve of my relocations having been firmly rooted in his Midlands village inspite of or because of his wartime exploits in the Sinai Desert and Palestine. It must have been a comfort to come home to the peace of Repton Village where his family had lived for around a century. I can understand that different experiences produce different reactions and mine was to get out and explore.

Anyway, it is all long in the past. Dad has been dead for 61 years and it feels like, well it was, another world. In that time, Kennedy was elected President. The Bay of Pigs threatened another World War, the Space Race started, the Berlin Wall went up. In UK, the Lady Chatterley obscenity trial was lost, the contraceptive pill became available and Harold Wilson launched the White Heat of Technology revolution. It all seems like a dream.

Friday, 16th October, 2026

Grey, warm and wet start to the day but the sun is coming. Lots to get through outside today so it better brighten up quickly. Can’t stand waking at 6.00 to darkness. I use the MSN satellite-video weather tracker.

It allows me to roll it forward to see how long the rain takes to pass over my house. This band will be gone by 10.00 am and life can start again.

And so it is, just like I said it would be; life is going easy now the sunshine has arrived. We’ve done a Sainsbury’s shop, a Fish shop down at the beach and bought some delicious looking samphire. Do you like this sea green weed, Dear Reader? I love it.

If you’re on a diet, this stuff is very safe but tasty and filling. Rich in vitamin C, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Iron, and Iodine, it grows in tidal salt marshes. Quite pricey at £4.00 for 250g but worth it. I love eating it with roast Salmon.

I must admit that I’ve taught myself to enjoy green vegetables – much against my instinct – over the past 25 years. I used to see lettuce as an adornment on a plate that would be collected up with the finished plates at the end. I would never have chosen, cabbage in any form, green beans or Sprouts. Finding the need for low calorie fillers, I forced myself to eat them.

I now start a meal with green things before I even consider the protein which is usually fish or chicken. In fact, I am working on smaller portions of protein as I reduce the capacity of my stomach. I don’t think I could have done this while under the stress of work. It is certainly easier in the undemanding situation of retirement.

I’m actually loving Broccoli these days. I can’t believe it. I would actually have threatened suicide as a child rather than eat the Broccoli my father grew in abundance. I’ve also grown to enjoy Cavolo Nero – the Italian Black Cabbage.

Amazing what you can do when you have to. Having a good, live-in chef is certainly helpful. You have to admit, this looks very tasty. It allows me to stick to my 1500 calories per day without feeling empty.

Saturday, 17th October, 2026

Gorgeous morning of strong sun and blue sky. A little cooler in the sea breeze but that will change as the day advances. I was reading the morning papers and suddenly I came across an article about Rose West the infamous murderer who is in HMP New Hall, a high-security prison in West Yorkshire.

What shocked me was that she had been in prison for 31 years and is now 72. The story was about her being near to death but the story for me was that it is more than 30 years since we were all absorbed in that news story. Thirty years!

I looked up in my Office as I thought about it and my Masters Degree certificate framed on the wall came into my gaze. It was 1989 – 37 years ago – although it really does feel that long now for me. It got me thinking about it. It doesn’t really look like me now. I’m a different person now. I wonder if Rose West is.

I don’t have many photos taken of me for obvious reasons but those I have, really seat me in their times. Generally, I am photographed when I am happy with my weight which is almost never but Degree Awards Ceremonies are almost obligatory times to record the event.

I have to go back to the 1980s when I was first in Greece to find photos that I would like to revisit. This one from Greece in 1982 is what I am aiming for.

Oh to be young again and have that effortless physicality that only youth can bring. I remember walking miles every day stripped to the waist in boiling hot sun without a care for what I ate or drank.

How does the time degrade and humiliate us? I know the stress of work over more than 30 years led to me abusing my body and Retirement is giving me the opportunity to make some amends.

Long gone are the carefree days of my youth when I could experiment and learn. What I didn’t know is what was in store for me. I do now. See you on the other side, Dear Reader.

Sunday, 4th October, 2026

Blue sky, strong sunshine, lovely, optimistic day. Going down to the beach after the political debates of the morning round.

My wife is 75 tomorrow. Cards have been arriving during the past week. I am going to be married to a 75 yr old. What do you buy for a 75 yr old? I don’t know. Last week, she ordered her own present – two new pairs of boots. They are suede. I hate suede. Anyway, I’m not going to wear them.

Suddenly at 5.00 pm last night, I had a brainwave. She has been talking about two things recently: new earbuds which don’t make her eardrums sore and which she can wear for a few hours on the plane listening to a film and is determined to learn Spanish. Being the genius that I am, my brainwave found the perfect present – earbuds that don’t go in your ear and that will help with the language problem.

These earbuds loop gently over the back of the ear and sit on the opening of the ear but still erradicate all outside sound and don’t leak the earbuds’ sound. They can be worn for a 4hr flight without any discomfort. We have a 4hr.35 mins flight to Tenerife to test them out.

Face-to-face translation: You speak one language, the other person speaks another, and translations are delivered through the app and earbuds.

Real-time listening translation: Useful for lectures, presentations, or conversations where you mainly need to listen and hear translated audio through the earbuds.

Support for 100 languages via the Soundcore app.

But what I like is the integration of AI with the app which controls the buds. support real-time AI language translation through the Soundcore app on her smartphone. When we go to Spain for 6 weeks next Summer, I hope she will have learnt enough to get by but also be able to use the earbuds to back up her new knowldge. Of course, I will be marking her on her progress and reporting back here.

The weather is certainly an early birthday present. You would be hard pressed to avoid the thoughts of high summer. It is October but 22C/70F and quite delicious to walk in. The tide was fully out and sea grasses fully exposed. Swimmers had to be walkers first.

Got home to go through online Checkin for our flights to Tenerife next month. Surprised to find our seats had been upgraded without our knowledge. Nice surprise. I print out Boarding Passes as well as download them to our digital wallets. Something to look forward to when this Indian Summer is long gone.

Monday, 5th October, 2026

We are 150. Unbelievable and, as I pointed out this morning, only 5 years until we are 80! Five Years? That’s only 2 cars! These are the occasions when everyone gets my obsession with age, time ….

I can’t afford cards these days so I asked Artificial Intelligence to make me one. I certainly couldn’t have done better myself. Of course most things decay over time apart from Pauline. More importantly than Pauline’s birthday, I need to get some work done on the garden lights which have been in place for just over 5 years.

Two of the sealed bulbs have blown and need replacing. I’ve told my wife to hold that thought at her age. Anyway, she’s trying out her new earbuds so she won’t hear me anyway. I’ve been hurriedly upgrading our seats on the six Easyjet flights we have booked so far for next year.

We have been able to avoid the dreaded, long, luggage conveyor belt wait anxiously looking for cases. Essentially, we avoid the cattle market of the luggage hall and go quickly back to our car. It really has improved our travelling experience – until now.

Now, in an attempt to protect the consumers and control the airlines, Europe has set in place new rules of business. For me to have seats that allow me to take a computer bag (placed under my seat), my wife to have a large handbag (placed under my seat) and both have reasonably large suitcases (in the overhead lockers), we pay a premium of around £100.00 each way. Now, everybody is going to be entitled to that facility and the chage must be factored in to the ticket price. Until now, I have had to triple check everything in my online booking because simple errors of spelling can be penalised by being charged a fortune to correct the error to not being allowed on the flight at all. The new legislation corrects this.

On a day when the news bulletins are featuring the NHS England report on rapidly rising Bowel Cancer numbers and linking it to poor diet, junk food, highly processed food – something which has been in the public domain for decades – I have agreed to take part in a Prostate Cancer Research Project from NHS England which will mean reviewing my experience with medical professionals and offering opinions for enhancement and improvement. Feels good to give something back.

Tuesday, 6th October, 2026

Woke early this to listen to a political podcast about the imploding Green Party – something which is helping Labour move to 30% voter choice which is the territory where a clear majority government could be formed.

And so it is just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is the shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky

But all the time I had this song playing in my head. It’s been playing for days and I’ve been shouting at it to go away. The cadences are haunting and insistent. Indelible. Irrefutable. Unforgettable. Do you suffer that problem, Dear Reader? I know every word.

I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes ….

The almost unvarnished song by Damien Rice is featured in the 2004 romantic drama film, Closer which I watched years ago but this is the one thing that has stuck with me. Ironic really. Sometimes it is an Eliot couplet but currently it is Damien Rice’s haunting rendition of The Blower’s Daughter.

Back to the harsh realities of life. I haven’t had a mortgage since 2009 and it is a lovely feeling. We used mortage borrowing to hurt ourselves in the short term to gain the rewards in the long term. And so it was … We are reaping the rewards for 17% mortgage rates in 1980 when we borrowed and invested so much that repayments were one of our salaries each month and for years. I was paying a mortgage of differing sizes for just over 30 years – 1978 – 2009 and the relief at paying it off was matched by a genuine feeling of freedom and prosperity.

Today Gen Z are screaming about 6% mortgage rates. I know I sound like an old cumudgeon but the sacrifices the Boomer generation made for their current prosperity in age was built on a platform of relative sacrifice. Yes, we’ve been lucky with property prices growing strongly over the past 50 years but all of that came at a price.

When it comes to Science, I am really quite ignorant. I rejected Science as a school subject quite early and have struggled to gain knowledge in that area ever since. Do you know what causes tides in the sea? I have a glib and superficial answer of the sun and the moon but I don’t know what I’m talking about.

I try to do my major walk down by the beach each day. The coastguard office on the promenade has a board outside advising Air temperature, Sea temperature, High Tide time and Low Tide Time each day. I try to walk mid morning and it is amazing how quickly over a week High Tide with no beach becomes Low Tide with lots of beach and things like grass or whatever that is in the photo this morning. I decided to ask AI and this is what she told me:

Ocean tides are caused mainly by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun acting on Earth’s water.

The Main Causes

• Gravity of the Moon: The Moon is close to Earth, so its gravity pulls hard on the ocean. This pull creates a bulge of water facing the Moon, which is a high tide.
• The Opposite Bulge: A second high tide happens on the opposite side of Earth. This occurs because Earth itself is pulled toward the Moon more than the water on the far side is, creating a stretch or bulge away from the Moon.
• Gravity of the Sun: The Sun also pulls on Earth’s oceans. It is much larger than the Moon, but it is much farther away. Because of this distance, the Sun’s tidal pull is about half as strong as the Moon’s.
• Earth’s Rotation: As Earth spins, different areas move through these water bulges. Most coastal areas get two high tides and two low tides every day.

So now I know. I will look at the sea in a new light from now on. I can’t take my eyes off you. I can’t take my eyes ….

Wednesday, 7th October, 2026

I’m driving to Woking this morning. It is damp and just 16C/61F outside. The lowest palindromic temperature for some time. In fact, today is going to be the first day for 100 days that the temperature won’t reach 20C/68F. The times they are a changing ….

Dilemma, I ordered an series of things from Amazon yesterday and they have chosen to deliver them this morning. It is 8.30 am and the delivery is 7 stops away. Got to leave just after 9.00 am so it is touch and go. But you can always rely on Amazon. They arrived with 5 minutes to spare and I was on the road on time.

Just as well, the roads were like driving in the North of England in Winter. Wet, wet, wet. Standing water, clouds of road spray, darkness … ugh. After such a prolonged dry period, I was worried that lots of water would make it slippy. Actually, I was more in danger of drowning than anything although visibility was awful at times.

Of course, couldn’t let little M down. Back from Florida for just one week. It’s so hard for her having to go back there.

Having tried my wife’s new ear buds, I decided that I would have to have some myself. This is what Amazon were delivering this morning. I’ve got a flight of 4 hrs 35 mins to get through for Tenerife. It is one of the prices you have to pay for Winter warmth. Flying closer to the equator takes time. I will need to have something to watch on my iPad to get through the time.

I’ve decided to buy earbuds that I don’t have to jam in to my ear. It becomes so uncomfortable over time for sensitive people like me. These new ones just rest on the opening of the ear and loop around the back of it at the same time. I love them. Now all I have to do is find something that will hold my attention for a few hours to download to my iPad.

I’ve (we’ve) just finished a film which made me laugh so much but is the most unlikely subject. It is called Anora on Netflix and it has won 5 Oscars, the Palme D’Or and was voted one of the best films of 2024. It is about a young stripper from Brooklyn who impulsively marries the son of Russian oligarchs, but her fairy tale is threatened when his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled. The result is sad/hysterical, slapstick/romantic and just really enjoyable. Mind you, I don’t think I will be watching it on a plane.

Thursday, 8th October, 2026

Gorgeous morning. Blue Sky and lovely, warm sunshine. Makes all the difference. Not too long until I fly to the Canaries and more sunshine. I’ve just been talking to the owners of the propery we’re renting because Easyjet have moved our flight home in December until the evening. Checkout is officially 11.00 am from our property. I want to stay until mid-afternoon so I’m trying to negotiate that now. The Gatwick Long Stay Carpark had to be adjusted as well

It is a Birthday Day for two, old friends. Brian, who I got in as an Attendance Officer in my school is such a reliable friend. Ex-policeman, Drugs Squad, Fraud Squad, Murder Squad in Greater Manchester Police turned out to be great at pursuading kids to attend school. He is 79 today and still living in Shaw. Artificial Intelligence is way out of Brian’s experience but it still produced a photo card for him. He’s just phoned my to say he’s in Ilkley following up an informant I’ve given him.

At the same time, an old friend from College, Julie is 76 today. She has had a lifelong passion for cricket in general – playing and watching – and Yorkshire Cricket particularly. I found a picture of her in her cricket whites and a picture of Yorkshire Cricket from our time at College and just asked AI to put them together. It worked quite well in the end.

It was lovely to see M yesterday and she was looking lovely. She seems to be very happy with her life which is good. We revisited our old Duplex home we left 11 years ago. Three hour’s driving left me tired. I woke up tired at around 5.00 am still tired so the first half of the morning has been spent sitting in the Office getting through jobs. Later, I will go through my exercise programme including a walk by the beach.

My wife, meanwhile, is working on our resilience against future threats. Government along with many other institutions have been warning of threats to our survival from weather and war for quite some time. Warlike threats from Russia and Iran are certainly increasing and disruption of food imports which we rely on quite heavily – over 40% of our food is imported – are one way in which we need resilience. Serious advice is to store tinned/dried food ingredients to cope with some days of nothing being available. Strong weather and we are being warned of the effects of El Nino this Winter can seriously threaten electricity supplies. We have gas central heating and a gas hob but we are buying battery powered lighting instead of candles. Anyway more of that another day.

Down at the beach, warm, sunny, beautiful (and that was just me) walking was a delight. It is 6 weeks that I have been on my renewed diet and exercise routine – 42 days since I drank alcohol. I feel fine. It never really bothers me. Life just feels a little more monotone. Red wine is a joy. It is something to share and celebrate. I have told myself that I won’t drink until I fly to Spain where I’ve rented a property for 6 weeks on June 2nd 2007. That will be 9 months abstinence. Interesting to see how I feel about it then. You know what they say: Absintence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, it works for the Methodists!

Friday, 9th October, 2026

Been a weird morning. My life fell apart last night. In an idle moment, I installed an app that I knew little about but I thought was worth experimenting with. You always take a risk when doing that. For me, it was a risk too far. The app immediately took over my phone and I could do nothing to get rid of it. Try as I might, the app sat on the front of my phone and denied me the ability to access my tools. In the end, I had to do a full factory reset which wiped all my data out, all my apps off and destroyed my life.

Fortunately, I have everything backed up in the cloud so all my emails, texts, Whatsapp messages, etc, were saved but all the apps had to be reinstalled so all the paaswords were needed to access them and so on … You can imagine the nightmare. Everything I do in my life, from shopping to managing the heating, from Finances to turning on my Gym equipment is all done with an app on my phone.

BeforeI could go shopping, I had to reinstall my Banking apps to pay and the Sainsbury’s app which I use to scan the shopping. Before that, I had to install my shaver app which monitors my shaving and my exercise app which monitors my paces. I had to reinstall my newspaper apps over Breakfast and my health Service apps to order a repeat prescription and a DHL app to so it went on and will go on for a few days.

Came Home from shopping to find two, Brown envelopes on the mat. Could life get any worse. Not more tax to pay, please. We have been paying enormous amounts of extra tax in recent years because of our investments which is why I’ve been desperately trying to shelter them in tax-free homes like ISAs and Bonds.

The brown envelopes are always opened by me. I’m the brave one. Pauline nearly died a few years ago when about £7,000.00 was demanded from her. Brown envelopes bravely opened and a nice surprise. We were receiving circa £700.00 of over paid tax back. It has been a good month. That brings our winnings to around £900.00 for October and we are only a few days in.

If you notice that little green sentence at the bottom, don’t believe it. It is a lie. It took me about an hour of frustration to get through the circular nonsense that is the Government website. It is so long since we used the Government Gateway that it seems they had forgotten us. We file every account, every digital identity, every password faithfully. They didn’t work today. I had to battle through the system including proving my identity by scanning my driving licence and my passport before I could access the process for getting the money back into our account. I never give up but I need the Gym now to help me de-stress!

Saturday, 10th October, 2026

Gorgeously warm and sunny morning. I wish I had time to enjoy it. Just as I am getting my wiped smartphone restored to full services, my Broadband is playing up. I was working on it all yesterday evening and all this morning. A lot of my evening was trying to work out whether it was my Sky Boxes or my BT/EE Broadband. It has never let me down before and I’ve been with them for more than 25 years.

Sky-Q boxes reset and reset solved nothing other than temporarily. On to the broadband. I have (should have) Gigabyt Full Fibre but, when I tested it, I was only getting 60mbs download and 20 mbps upload. There was the problem. I reset my hub, reset my wifi extenders as you do, Dear Reader, but to no avail. As Broadband is as essential to life as oxygen and more essential than water, I had a problem. Even my newly restored smartphone is linked to the internet at home because EE’s 5G signal round here is weak.

Eventually, I turned to AI CoPilot and we ran through all the possibilities together. It was clear after a couple of hours that we couldn’t solve it ourselves. We agreed on a form of words to discuss with BT Technical Dept. Of course, although you get a real person, it is still in the form of chat. BT can dial in to my Hub and look at its performance. They can also see where my extenders are situated – one in the Dressing Room and one in the Gym.

I was online with them for another two hours in which time they upgraded my hub, reset my WiFi extenders and I was looking at the BT Chat Screen, the Copilot Chat Screen and A Broadband Speedtest screen all at the same time.

Did it work? No. I was told that my Hub had been upgraded over the net and now need higher response cables. I would be sent one. I couldn’t wait for that and I was sceptical of the solution anyway. I drove down to Currys and bought 2 x Cat6 Ethernet cables. at a cost of about £25.00. Drove home, replaced the cables. Did it work? No. I am going t have to buy in some tech labour to do the job in person. I am tired, frustrated, feeling inadequate and stupid. Why can’t I work it out myself.

Sunday, 27th September, 2026

September is almost gone and October won’t be long. All I’m asking is more time. Help me make it through my life. I don’t care who’s right or wrong. I don’t try to understand. Let the devil take tomorrow. Help me make it through my life.

I don’t know where that came from but it certainly rings a bell. The cadence of words that spill out directs the chords that follow and plays Help me make it through the night. My inner life often seems to surface on a Sunday and plagues me. Outside the world goes on unchallenged and I sit in my Office in my head in my thoughts in the music of the words.

It is a lovely morning after a very warm night. I must wish my old friend, Nigel (aka Nog) a happy 77th birthday up in North Yorkshire. He is an artist and sculptor and still works inspite of ill health.

Despite the lovely weather and the good fortune I look forward to, I’m feeling rather empty and sad this morning. There is something missing. I am constantly chasing to catch up.

Maybe I will find it at the beach. So lovely and warm with late Summer sunshine and still the holiday makers wander around and beachside enterprises fish for custom. The train is still running for the kids and elderly. It always amuses us that we walk further and faster than the train takes its passengers and it costs them £3.00 for a return.

Ice creams are soon spotted by the kids but the fish&chips are still doing well even though they cost around £13.00 for a portion. Haven’t eaten fish&chips for so many years and, even then, I wasn’t persuaded. Still, it is a nice place to sit with a coffee and watch the sea on the turn. It is going back to a far off beach only to return this evening.

There is something elemental about this scenery if you can see past the tourist frippery. The smell, the sound and the force of the sea reaches down into humans who subliminally recognise their origins in the primordial slime – the organic mixture on early Earth from which the first life-forms evolved.

Monday, 28th September, 2026

Warm over night. My phone app said we were double the temperature of Oldham which was just 7C/44F in the means streets of Acre Lane. I’m obsessed with the places that form the timeline of my life. I have so many of them on my weather app, on the Live Cams that let me revisit in real time and links with the people that I know.

This morning a couple of minutes ago, I was on Sifnos in the port of Kamares watching people come and go almost as I would have when I lived there. It is a lovely day there.

But then there is Blackpool this morning which I don’t know much about but is enjoying its own lovely day although not quite as warm. These cameras are all around the country and the world if you know where to look and can get into the systems and they allow one to look in like some digital god.

But place is important even to a traveller like me who has lived in a number of places. I associate them with people and experiences that I always need to revisit, can’t let go.

I was born and brought up in a central Midlands village of Repton, Derbyshire. It was a rural, parochial place surrounded by more rural, parochial places. The next village over the River Trent was Willington. It was the next village but I rarely visited it and knew little about it other than it had a signal box where the husband of our cleaner worked and once let us pull the levers to switch the tracks.

I was watching Countryfile last night because I like the country and farming things but last night I was surprised to find the programme was set in Willington and the reintroduction of Beavers to the Wetlands surrounding the Trent.

An hour later, I was moving on to episode 7 of 8 of a drama I’ve been gripped by. It is on iPlayer and called MotherFatherSon with Richard Gere, Helen McCrory, Sarah Lancashire & Billy Howle. It is set in London although the American voice of Richard Gere dominates. Suddenly last night it opened on the scene above. I looked twice before I realised it was Sarah Lancashire walking towards me on Worthing Pier.

Two in one night was lovely but while we were in Athens one Summer, we were watching a film on Netflix in the evening when this scene appeared. The film was an English thriller set in Athens and suddenly the romantic conman took the gullible female tourist out for coffee. They sat at the table we had been at that morning overlooking the ruins of Hadrian’s Library which dated back to 132 AD.

In subsequent years I have returned to that spot many times. It is certainly better to see and touch for yourself than to experience through the medium of a CCTV camera but sometimes that is the only way.

Tuesday, 29th September, 2026

Blue sky, strong sunshine after a really warm night for September. I haven’t slept in a bed since April. I sleep on top of the bed because it is so warm. I wonder how much longer it will be. Hardly been in the Gym because of the weather but tomorrow is the last day of September and that can only mean cooler times are ahead.

The internet of everything is here and has been for a while. Artificial Intelligence is being brought in to the controll of more and more areas of life. Even our washing machine and our tumble dryer have AI settings which means they weigh the clothes, ask the material and automatically calculate the processes needed to complete the task.

Needless to say that, if there is a fault with the internet, there is a problem with normal life. I have so much depending on it, I have long paid for a gold plated fibre optic broadband delivery to our property to make the services run smoothly. In my Office I have a BT/EE smart wifi hub which comes automatically with a backup hub which operates on the 5G mobile network. I have gigabyt broadband which means I should get a download speed of 1000 mbps.

It is never exactly that but it is superfast at all times. To put it into context, normal speeds before fibre optics was around 25 mbps and upload was so slow that large files took half a day to upload. That was with just one computer using it and, if neighbours either side were using the net, the shared rate (contention) was slower. With fibre there is no contention rate. It is individually to my door so the past couple of weeks have been quite confusing.

My TV network is supposed to operate seemlessly across the house. I can watch something in the Gym, finish mt workout and pick up the thing I’m watching in the Kitchen, the Lounge, Bedroom or in the Office. The process relies on the Sky Boxes talking to each other and on the reliability of the Broadband feed that links them.

For the past couple of weeks, the Sky boxes have lost connection to the internet and to each other over night and I wondered if my 10yr old boxes were failing. I’ve upgraded their software, rebooted their connections, messing about every morning and got really irritated with them. Eventually, I tried to speak to someone in the Technical Department at Sky. It is impossible.

I looked to my internet and found it had been compromised. BT/EE looked at my network remotely and told me I had a settings problem and how to fix it. I’ve done that and everything is back to normal but I was left wondering how many people could have done that at home. Certainly, my wife couldn’t and I suspect many people couldn’t. There is still a need for face to face conversations to walk people through these problems and give them the confidence to cope.

Down at the beach this morning, I once again did the 10 kilometers return down the coast and back and that I’ve been doing for months. It felt good in a warm breeze and a temperature of 24C/75F with weak sunshine on my skin and sea spray bathing me. Got to keep going.

Wednesday, 30th September, 2026

The last day of September 2026 has arrived after the most incredibly warm night for this time of year. We didn’t fall below a steamy 22C/70F and we started with some useful rain. By 9.00 am, I was at the surgery donating another armful of blood for my INR venous crosscheck while my accountant was busily giving away £640.00 for her car tax. The DVLA website makes it so easy to give them money.

You can’t have watched Andy Burnham’s Conference speech yesterday – and I know you did, Dear Reader – without being moved and uplifted. It was a speech I could have written myself for the past 40 years. In fact I did when presenting a paper to a Research group on the M.A. course at Huddersfield University in 1985/6. It was an update of the old Gas & Water Socialism that we espoused in those days and it proposed rolling back Thatcherism. I went to bed at midnight still on a high and was awake at 4.30 am listening to a podcast discussing the speech. I heard commentators on the Far Right GB News saying that the speech was historic and would mean a second term of Labour was baked in now. We will see.

The speech featured many things that I wanted to hear but most that people have been afraid of raising for so long.

• Public Ownership of essential Utilities
• Social Care knitted in to the National Health Service
• Return of Apprenticeships
• Help to Buy Housing for young people to get on the ladder.
• Social Housing for those who can’t afford direct ownership
• Moving back to the European Union
• Proportional Voting for real representation

These are ideas and concepts I have been reading and writing about for so many years. While I was sitting in my Office in Huddersfield, they were the focus. When I was sitting in my Office in Greece, they were the focus.

Just 15 years ago today I was sitting on this patio under a pergola reading books and newspaper articles about just these ideas as the waves crashed on the beach by the port. I am well known as a cryer and I am not ashamed to admit that Burnham’s speech moved me to tears. It has been a long time coming.

For me it has been quite a journey. From a conservative voting home to a conservative Grammar School to a conservative Anglican Training College, left wing politics rose slowly. I think meeting people from working class backgrounds at College was a trigger. I would never have read a book like this before I arrived. I know I’ve featured it before but a student lent it to me and the story has stuck with me.

At 16, Sally Trench left her comfortable upper class home to live and work on the streets with homeless people. Among the homeless on London’s streets, she put love into their situations from sitting with a drug addict through agonizing days of withdrawl to saving a tramp from a burning building. I’m sorry but that would never be me. But I admired it and realised my own limitations.

I couldn’t be Sally Trench. I can’t rescue injured birds. The feel of their feathered bodies is too much for me. I can’t rescue down-and out-tramps, their dirt and smell makes me shudder, I really admire the people who can do those things but I can recognise their plight and I can argue their case for treatment by people more suited than me. I will never be good enough but I can be of use.

Thursday, 1st October, 2026

Happy new month, Dear Reader. Happy October. Let’s hope it continues the way it has started – warm with blue sky and strong sunshine. We had a brief bout of heavy rain in the middle of the night and the world looks all the better for it this morning.

For me, there was one good thing about 1973. UK joined the EEC. I was delighted to be European. Having escaped a restrictive village life a few years earlier, to escape a introverted and restrictive island life was the next step. By 1980, when I had the time and money to enjoy it, Europe became a passion. Being European became a raison d’etre.

I can still see the moment now with Geoffrey Rippon MP watching Ted Heath sign the Accession document that he himself had drawn up and a sense of pride that Britain could now move on. Looking back at the black & white photos of grey men in grey suits with not a woman in sight just about summed up what I wanted to escape but it wasn’t until I got on a plane in 1981 and flew to Athens that I realised how exciting a place I now belonged to. Anything and everything was possible.

And so it was just like you said it would be. Life went easy for me … most of the time. From that moment, I was a committed European. I loved Europe and all it had to offer. In those days, my wife was trying to teach kids in Domestic Science and introduced them to Spaghetti Bolognese, Lasagne, Risotto, etc, and would receive letters from parents telling her they didn’t eat that foreign muck. It is a refrain you can still hear from people holidaying abroad who complain about Spain being full of Spanish people and the food being horrible. But, for most of us, open minds lead to widening horizons, exciting experiences and enhanced lifestyles.

I say for most of us but the referendum suggested the closed mind syndrome was more extensive than we thought. We should have known that the British Pubs and Fish&Chip bars that the large number of Brits abroad liked to frequent, indicated an inability to rise to the challenges of European integration.

The result was a shock to me and I was hurt by it. Cameron was stupid and too arrogant to set safeguards on the referendum. It should have required more than a simple majority to make such a momentous change. But that’s Tory Boys for you. They believe that the rabble electorate will follow their lead and give them what they want. Not this time and, as we warned, the result has been disastrous.

Of course there is a lot of voter remorse. As the current poll running in The Mirror this morning indicates, there is a strong majority for rejoining. Whether that survives the Far Right attempts to scare them with membership of the Euro and being ruled by ‘unelected’ European bureaucrats, we must wait and see but at least we have a leader prepared to try for the good of the country.

Already the opposition are raising the ‘second referendum’ spectre but I think it may just be part of the Labour Party’s Election Manifesto. It will certainly be part of the Lib. Dems. manifesto and the Greens as well. If, as expected, there will be a strong anti-Reform move for tactical voting and the result involves power sharing amonst the progressive Left with Labour by far the largest party, a unifying theme could well be found in Rejoin.

We already know that Europe will welcome us back with open arms. As soon as Burnham spoke, Macron of France and Sanchez of Spain openly stated they would be happy to see us back in the fold. Just as 1973 was a momentous year for all sorts of reasons, so the next few years will see a lot of those problems readdressed. I really believe we can put an end to this isolation and I can die happy.

Friday, 2nd October, 2026

Don’t you just love organised weather. Warm over night but wet. Real rain. The morning has opened warm, dry and sunny with lovely blue sky. I know I go on about it but I am British (European) and it is a national obsession. If I’d been born in the Canaries, weather wouldn’t have featured at all. So near to the equator, the weather is more or less the same all year which is why it is a ‘safe bet’ for tourists.

Anyway it doesn’t seem to be detering readers. My readership is quite respectable for an old man’s dribblings. My 1st October entry was read by 1,076 people who had nothing better to do. Let’s hope they come back for this morning’s good news of my running Government Bonds account.

Every beginning of a new month provides the excitement (OK interest) of potential winnings from an £18,000.00 investment. This morning, I found that this month’s prize was the best yet at £200.00 although that is still only providing 3.3% annualised which is not good enough. I have 18,000 Premium Bonds and I have won 10 separate prizes each on a different Bond. There are still 2 x £1 millions each month, 90 x £100,000.00 each month, etc, so hope springs eternal.

Hope is all we have for fuel prices at the moment. Trump’s short sighted war against Iran and the war between Europe and Russia centred on the invasion of Ukraine have combined to create a shortage of oil products and particularly petrol and diesel. I have never driven a diesel car. I would never drive a diesel car. I have always seen them as noisy, polluting engines. Honda has never made one anyway which meant I never had that dilemma.

Nowadays, driving a diesel car is like riding a dinosaur. And it is increasingly expensive. The Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown encouraged diesel car ownership through tax incentives because diesel vehicles produced less CO₂ than petrol cars. The policy was intended to help tackle climate change. The controversy is that while diesel engines emit less CO₂ than equivalent petrol engines, they also produce higher levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates. Later evidence showed these pollutants had significant health impact as well.

So it is an example of the dangers of unintended consquences. Blair & Brown based their actions on the latest expert advice at the time. Subsequently, the electorate found they had followed official advice only to have the rug pulled from beneath them. Petrol is cleaner and cheaper. Unfortunately, the poor who can’t afford to change still have their diesels and will probably run them into the ground for years to come unless the price of diesel overwhelms them.

Of course, diesel is far more important than that. It still fuels most heavy goods vehicles which impacts the costs of moving goods around the country and adds to the price and raises inflation. Actually, we rely on diesel imports and Trump is so under pressure at home he is threatening to stop all exports. We import about 30% of our diesel supplies fro the US and that could see rationing here. Domestic vehicles will be at the bottom of that food chain with Commercial traffic and Public Transport at the top. As long as they don’t affect my flights, I don’t care. Electric is the way to go and this may just encourage the switch. I’ll be documenting it over the next decade of the Blog.

Saturday, 3rd October, 2026

Tic Toc, Tic Toc, Tic Toc …. the irresistible metronome of time continues unerringly. I hear its sound in my head constantly. My Blog beats along, charting its course. Past years remind me that this week – the first week of October was a time of movement and return. For years it was return from our Greek home. The car was being packed up. The house was being put to bed for 6 months and arrangements were being finalised for the journey – ferries, hotels, etc.

Although it was a wrench, in my head it was not leaving but moving my life for while confident in the knowledge that I would return. That is important to me. It was also a highlight for me because I love driving and particularly driving that tests me – across different countries with different languages, on and off ferries, across wonderful bridges, through romantic places like around Lake Garda and through Dijon.

One of the great experiences was always driving ove the Rio–Antirrio Bridge the world’s longest fully suspended bridge. It crosses the Rion Strait between the Gulf of Corinth and Gulf of Patras it connects the Peloponnese peninsula to mainland Greece by road. We first drove to Greece in 2000. We had just bought our second new Honda CRV. It was the perfect car for hauling vast amounts of luggage across Europe in air conditioned comfort.

I don’t know what it says about me that I ve bought at least 10 new Honda CRVs since then and I am currently looking at the next iteration of it which is now timed for early 2028. The next one will almost certainly be plug-in-hybrid which has the most amazing fuel economy.

As you will see from the bottom right corner of the chart, currently, I can achieve 40 – 46 mpg. A plug-in-hybrid will give something like 200 mpg which this current world will really appreciate. One of the reasons for this is my retired lifestyle. I don’t drive 40 miles a day for work. I don’t drive 3000 miles for a Greek round trip. I drive 3 miles to Sainsburys and back. At the 2yr anniversary of the car, I had clocked 4,100 miles. Pathetic, I know but that’s the reality and, if I want to do a long journey – say to Lancashire – it will always have the petrol back up.