Category: Sanders Blog – Hellas

21st February, 2010

Looked out at 6.00 am and the world was clear and fine. Got up at 7.30 am to a blizzard and the roads thick in snow. Went out for the papers immediately to feed my addiction and only just made it in my 4×4. Slid all the way down the hill back home. It’s going to be another ‘tucked-up’ day.

22nd February, 2010

Still getting everything ready for Greece. Today I ordered propagation units for growing vegetable seedlings before planting out. I ordered them from Sutton Seeds.

Another preparation is a framed photograph of our first house when we got married. The house you all came to on our wedding day. Pauline bought it in 1974 for £4,000.00 and we sold it in 1984 for £29,000.00. Our Greek house has pictures of Slade House and Quarry Court and now it will have the coaching house in Meltham. It went on the market two years ago for £340,000.00 but we can’t believe they got that for it.

23rd February, 2010

One of our biggest headaches in Greece at the moment is communications. We have our mobiles – we have a Vodafone contract phone each and we have a pay-as-you-go Vodafone Greece mobile with SIM as well. The latter would be quite useful for Greek calls in Greece but not cheap to phone UK. The UK contract mobiles cost 75p per connection outside UK using something called the Vodafone Passport which then allows one to use inclusive minutes. This is great if you talk for hours but Pauline phones her Mum two or three times per day and, as we are away 180 days, it would cost us just over £400.00. I know that’s not a lot and we would happily pay it but I’ve decided to resurrect my Skype membership.

Almost as soon as Skype was available, I downloaded it and tried to use it. Skype uses peer-to-peer technology to allow users to voice communicate over the internet (VOIP or voice over Internet Protocol). What it means, in real terms, is that two Skype users can talk for free. If a Skype user contacts a non-skype phone number, there is a charge but it is small. I can Skype call Pauline’s Mum from Greece to her flat in Oldham. She won’t know the difference but it will only cost me 1.2p per minute. Three 3-minute calls per day for 180 days will cost about £20.00. This is fantastic. It is all done with a little bit of software and a handset plugged in to a USB port. You can even have a hands-free phone now or a wireless Skype connection.

24th February, 2010

The one prerequisite for VOIP is a broadband connection. I am struggling to get a phone line. Some people wait for years because the OTE – the former nationalised telephone company in Greece – is a lame leviathan where the jobs-for-life theme is strongly expressed. The OTE is 30-percent owned by Deutsche Telekom after a limited take-over last year but as a condition they had to agree to leaving workers in their jobs undisturbed for life. This is one of the main problems with the Greek economy. The previously nationalised industries have been partly hived off to the private sector but they have taken their old working practices with them. These include being paid 14 monthly salaries in a 12 month period, being paid extra if they have to carry a file up or downstairs, having a job for life, etc.

25th February, 2010

Yesterday there was a general strike across Greece. They refuse to accept the harsh measures that the EU are forcing on them. The strike paralysed Greece not least because there was no transport apart from that taking strikers to their rallies. Below is a photo of a cafe on Syntagma (Constitution) Square which has been vandalised by the strikers. Unfortunately, they are frightening off their lifeblood – the tourists.

Even the Greek Government are attempting to bite the hand that feeds them. Germany will eventually have to bail them out. The Greeks won’t kowtow to them. They are demanding of the Germans 56 billion Euros in reparation for Second World War damages.

27th February, 2010

We are within six weeks of leaving Pauline’s Mum for six months. It was always assumed that, when she became unable to look after herself, she would move from the Anchor Housing ‘Residential’ home to the  Anchor Housing ‘Care’ home just further up the hill. Below are the two properties. They are about 200 yards apart. Pauline & I secured the last flat in the newly opened  Anchor Housing ‘Residential’ home – Spring Hill Court – 28 years ago. She was thrilled with it and has loved living there. She was 67 when she moved in and Pauline & I bought all the furniture for her. It is a warden-assisted place but it has always been absolutely delightful because of the management of the property. Many people have to sell their own homes in order to afford a flat. Pauline’s Mum had nothing – still has nothing – and everything is funded for her.

The second photo is of the Anchor Housing ‘Care’ home – Millfield – which has had two inspections and come out of both with an Excellent report.

 

Ultimately, we would like her to move from one to another when she feels the time is right. We think that time is not far away but she isn’t quite ready now. We think that after we have been away for 6 months and she has lost part of her safety net, she may feel differently. On that basis, we are going to talk to the Millfield Management before we go just to find out entry requirements. We know it is an expensive place to get in to normally but Pauline’s Mum should be fully funded. Next week is a busy one ferrying Pauline’s Mum to hospital, etc and we hope to fit a visit to Millfield in as well.

14th February, 2010

Be still my beating heart!

Click Heart for Passion.

I walked in to Sainsburys yesterday morning and was hit by an overwhelming perfume. At the doors they always display the fresh flowers and they seemed to be overwhelmingly roses – red roses. I remember thinking how strange it was as I almost fell over a display of pink champagne on my way to pick up a paper. Suddenly, I twigged – Valentine’s Day. Of course, in school one was never allowed to forget that. Kids sending cards to kids. Kids sending cards to teachers. It was a hothouse of hormones. Then one would smile indulgently at the never changing merry-go-round of the cycle of development. But now how irrelevant and tacky it seemed.

Much more importantly, the downward spiral of the Climate Change religion goes on apace. The Sunday Times ran a story of a report by leading scientist who cast doubt on the accuracy of the warming data because of where the weather stations are sited. their siting is clearly important to their accuracy and conditions have changed since some or many were put in place. For example, a weather station at Manchester Airport was originally set in green fields but has been gradually built around until it is now based on and surrounded by concrete. Concrete absorbs and emits heat thus providing falsely higher  temperatures. Other stations are positioned near air conditioning units, etc. It is this data upon which we are building costly plans for the future. You can read the full article below:

15th February, 2010

Having survived Valentine’s Day, I now find myself having to survive Half Term. Pauline & I have had some memorable Half Term breaks –

Milan was great but cold and foggy.

  

Furteventura in the Canaries was hot and humid:

  

Lille was very French:

  

Venice was just unforgettable:

  

Paris was all restaurants:

  

Arras was medieval:

   

This Half Term we went to the Health Club to find Mothers taking their children to swimming lessons – in our pool! We went home and resolved not to return until next Monday. I honestly think Half Terms are an unnecessary distraction from school work, an unwarranted interruption to learning. These sorts of hiatus could scar children for life. I think we should be arguing for a 5 Term Year with a week’s break at the end of each one. Five weeks holiday should be enough for anyone.

The Greeks, of course, who are really in the mire and are desperately trying to drag everyone into it with them, the Greeks are on holiday. Today is ‘Clean Monday’ (Καθαρή Δευτέρα). This is the first day of the Greek Orthodox Lent. The common term for this day, “Clean Monday”, refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods. (I’ll drink to that!) Eating meat, eggs and dairy products is traditionally forbidden to Christians throughout Lent, with fish being eaten only on major days, but shellfish is permitted. The other activity on Clean Monday is to fly kites. All Greeks go out to fly their kites after lunch. Lent is the beginning of spring. We must go out to greet the first outdoor day of the new year. The community celebrates this day by climbing the nearest hill and flying kites on the fresh spring wind!

16th February, 2010

Mum was a big admirer of the Jesuits and she would not have enjoyed the article in The Times today that started:

The sexual abuse scandal in Jesuit-run German schools is spreading rapidly and is likely to involve more than a hundred former pupils, according to the head of one of the affected colleges

This is classic Roman Catholicism and beats the Climate Change scandal into a cocked hat in all but the cost to us. Read the full article here:

17th February, 2010

Found a fascinating string of Blogs today. Firstly, a Japanese girl who has married a Greek from Piraeus. She has studied in England (Birmingham) and Italy (Pisa) as well as Japan and Greece. She is a Doctor of Philosophy but her Blog is about living in Greece and focusses on Greek food. It can be found here:

18th February, 2010

Got an email from Liz today. She sounded very up-beat:

John
I have been to lunch today at house of Lords. Really wish Mum was alive to tell her.
You know how easily impressed she was. Me Lizzie dripping hob nobbing with Lords
There are 17 bars there! And I met the speaker. I was so excited.

I replied:

Well Lizzie Dripping
What were you doing there? Did you drink in all 17 bars

Liz got back to me to say she was lobbying Lord Victor Abedowale who looks a bit like the Tories answer to Bob Marley. Apparently, he is the CEO of Turning Point.

19th February, 2010

Bob’s 58th birthday. Got a nice email from him. Had to be up and out by 8.30 this morning because Pauline’s Mum had final assessment in Oldham Royal before cataract operation. As usual, travelling was a nightmare. Five or six hours of snow had fallen last night. The M62 was completely closed. It had police cars across it. A car was stranded half way up the grass of the roundabout with its back end staved in from an earlier collision.There had been accidents at 5.30 am, 6.15 am, 6.45 am and 7.00 am. Black ice was said to be the problem and there was a 12 mile tail back amounting to 2.5 hours. Of course, the mooors road was out of the question because that would have been impassable. We had to go on a long, circuitous route many miles out of our way in huge lines of frustrated cars. We got there in the end but it was scarey and not fun.

Pauline’s Mum is our post office. We do most of our shopping on-line and have everything delivered to her. She’s always in and it means she gets visitors. Today we collected three parcels: some 6 x Kingsize Egyptian Cotton Sheets from BHS central delivery; Magix Video & Audio Editing software package from Amazon and some kitchenware from Lakeland.

20th February, 2010

Saturday is always Sainsburys Day even in retirement. It is hard to believe but early on Saturday morning is still the quietest time to get through the weekly shop. I am indulging my love of offal again this week. I am addicted to liver and kidney in red wine sauce. This is eaten with shredded savoy cabbage cooked in butter and garlic. Wonderful. I love it. It will take my mind off Man U..

 

I bet you just want it!

7th February, 2010

I can’t believe I’ve managed to sustain this for 60 weeks. If only I could diet with that determination. Started snowing again today. After an initial foray out for the Sunday Papers, it was a lovely, relaxing day of reading, Rugby Union and Premier League football. Just a pity Arsenal were so spineless!

Wonderful but horrifying article by Christopher Booker in The Sunday Telegraph in which he ferrets out money – our taxpayer money – given by our government under various guises to spurious foreign organisation under the heading of fighting climate change. Amongst other outrageous items of expenditure, he lists the £239, 538.00 we spent for study of ‘Climate Change Impacts on Chinese Agriculture’. The whole article can be read here.

8th February,  2010

Aren’t Monday mornings wonderful? Went for a wonderful swim although the Steam Room was out of order. It is the Spirit Health Club chain and there are clear signs of economic tightening. The Managers are definitely less specialist and expensive to employ than they were ten years ago. The temperatures of the pools are lower – or is it me?

The next hospital visit for Pauline’s Mum this afternoon. We’ve got two this week. To add to her problems, her gout has flared up again. This afternoon it is skin cancer on her nose – post operative – that we are checking. She was signed off. I can’t remember what I was looking for help with for Pauline’s Mum but suddenly I found myself staring at this cherubic face. It was someone called Liz Bruce. I thought, I know that girl! Suddenly realised it was our Liz.

There is a comment box at the bottom of this webpage. I sent in the following message:

What a wonderful new Strategic Director you’ve got and she looks gorgeous!

John Sanders – Huddersfield Home for the Bewildered

9th February,  2010

More snow today. Thought I’d do a search for Liz Bruce in an idle moment. Up popped a copy of  The Daily Telegraph. Mum would have been so proud. You can read the article below:

10th February,  2010

The Health Club was really quiet – probably the snow put them off. The Steam Room had been repaired. I met a Hungarian in the changing rooms. He decided to tell me a joke:

A woman got on a train with her strange looking child and they both sat down. The train moved on one stop and a man sitting opposite prepared to get off. As he did so, he leaned over to the woman and said, You’ve got a very ugly child. The man got off, leaving the woman visibly upset. Another, seeing her distress went over and said, I’ll get you a cup of tea to settle your upset. He went off down the carriage and came back with a cup of tea and a banana. He said, Here you are love. This will make you feel better and I’ve got a banana for your monkey!

I’d heard it before but I laughed all the same. It made him feel better. Well, he was Hungarian.

Spent the rest of the day tightening up the plans for our European trip. We leave England on April 13th and arrive on our island on April 19th. We leave our island on October 4th and arrive back in England on October 9th – 180 days after leaving it.

11th February,  2010

Interesting day today. A young, trainee teacher from my old school who I had been mentoring and supervising last year called round in the morning to ask me to continue in that role. I am very reluctant to get involved. He is a higher order ICT instructor but with weak literacy skills. This latter point seems to count for so little these days but it is essential in my view. We agreed someone else should mentor him. I am free!

Took Pauline’s Mum for pacemaker check. She passed. It is 8 years old and still working well. She will be 96 in August. We will be away but will fly home for a few days if necessary.

12th February,  2010

Had a day off from the Health Club today. Pauline has spent the morning speaking to insurance companies. We now have the house and contents insured for the whole of the 6 months it is unoccupied. We don’t even need to have neighbours coming in to check. We probably will but it is reassuring that it is not a requirement. If you’ve never left your house unoccupied for more than a couple of weeks, you would probably not be aware of insurance requirements. Most House and Contents insurance policies stipulate a limit of 30 days that the property can be left unoccupied. After that, insurance policies are void. Leaving the house for 180 days can be quite daunting. Today we found Intasure, a Lloyds registered insurance company who will insure us for the whole period at a cost of £330.00 for the year. Health insurance and Travel insurance are being provided by Columbus Direct and cost £260.00. Car insurance comes from Fortis. Once again, this is not easy to get for more than a couple of months. We have had to negotiate individually with Fortis and have agreed to pay £20.00 per month extra for the six months we are away so £120.00 on top of our annual comprehensive policy.

We seasoned Hellas travellers know there is only one reliable place to go for inter-island ferry information. GTP or Greek Travel Pages has been published for decades but now is also on the web. Today I was able to fit the last connection into the outward itinerary by fixing the third ferry connection of the trip. We have to cross the British Channel, the Adriatic Sea and the Aegean Sea. This latter crossing is expensive and infrequent at this time of the year. Fortunately, the Hydrofoil service – Aegean Speedrunner – will have started its Summer service. The ferry takes between 5 – 6 hours from Piraeus – Sifnos. The Hydrofoil takes half that. It still costs £120.00 for two with car.

13th February,  2010

Pauline & I have lived together for nearly 32 years. When I say ‘lived together’, I really mean it. We haven’t spent a night apart in that time – or a day. We have worked together on the same campus, often in the same building and, at one point, even shared the same office. We know each other and each knows what the other is thinking often before they do themselves. It will soon be twelve months since we last went to work. As well as wonderful, it has been strange. All our lives we have been running, trying to achieve something. Suddenly, we are not and yet we have both found ourselves substituting future goals which are of no great consequence and pushing ourselves towards them.

I am reminded of the Lines from Elliot’s Ash Wednesday:

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn ……
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still

Even in our travelling, we must learn to sit still.

31st January, 2010

When we were teaching, we could tell you immediately what conditions we needed to deliver successful lessons. If we had been advising parents what classroom conditions they should be looking for to ensure their child would receive the best education, we might come up with a whole list of requirements from skilful and knowledgable teachers with good discipline to innovative ICT to warm and attractive classrooms BUT, the top of any list would always feature class size. Ask any parents who sacrifice thousands of pounds each year in private school fees and they will tell you that one of the most important privileges they are buying is smaller class size.

You can imagine our amazement and then our amusement when, first under Thatcher and then under Blair (War criminal & Roman Catholic)/Ruth Kelly (Education Minister & Roman Catholic), we were told when extra teachers could not be afforded, that bigger class size actually led to better teaching.

There are several different advantages to bigger class sizes relating to teacher quality and teacher pay that often get overlooked in the political posturing known as educational policy. Smaller classes require more teachers, which drives down both the quality of teachers as a whole as well as their pay. The only people who benefit from more teachers are politicians who can claim they have done something for education and teachers unions who get more members. Larger classes, with high quality teachers, actually benefits both the children and the teachers.

This is Bonkers in the Head thinking which could only come from someone who has never faced a clas of 50 – 60 kids and tried to teach them. Actually Thatcher, Blair and Kelly all sent their children to private schools in some perverse sense of punishment by smaller class size. Politics is cynical and politicians say what they need to say particularly when in office. The really annoying thing is that you can always find gullible members of the public to support them when caught on the vox pop hoof. Oh yes. I’ve never really thought about it but, now you come to mention it, I suppose bigger classes must be much better for our children.And then the Government will find a polling organisation who can persude a majority of the 20 people asked to agree with the Bigger Classes – Better Chances slogan. Below are pictures of the classrooms Ruth inhabited as a child:

 

1st February, 2010

Today, of course, it is not shortage of teachers that is on the agenda. Today we are being told to believe that people are clamouring to keep working. Surveys tell us that 65% of those questioned are desperate to keep working. They love it so much, there is nothing they would rather do. Forget hobbies, forget travelling, forget self indulgence! What 65% of the adult population are desperate to do is get up every morning and decide not to follow their dreams but to commute across town in order to build that house, attend that meeting, sell that coffee, sweep that road. Do me a favour! This is  state-driven propaganda.

2nd February, 2010

While the rest of the world was out at work, I was down at PCWorld buying a new laptop for my wife, installing all my school-bought software and setting up the wireless network. When I bought my first laptop (with school money) ten years ago, it cost £2500.00. It had short battery life, weighed heavier than a hod of bricks and, I think, had a 10″ screen. It was a Toshiba. It has long since dropped in a skip. I must have had five more school laptops since then. Buying my own was a strange experience. Once again I bought a Toshiba but, this time, it has a 17″ screen, a 2.5 hrs battery, a built-in webcam & microphone and an on-line healthcheck and repair system. And it only cost £500.00.

Had an email from Cal that I would like to share with you:

Some new pics for you. These boyo’s (deer) ran out in front of me on my way to work again the other morning. Part of a local lake frozen, pics of the extension, storm damage in the garden, our river flooding and road closureIt will be a year in March since we began the extension, what a year to pick, what an adventure! Between having to dismantle the central heating boiler which means no central heating in the coldest winter for years, floods and storms and the well freezing tis certainly an adventure. We have the start of the roof with most of the joists in place the timber plates on the top of the blocks and most of the blocking of the chimney complete. We have the ceiling height measured and positioning of the velux windows and french doors organised. So it’s the roof struts, felting and tiling next and spring official starts tomorrow in Ireland, yippee.

The pay cut is on hold at the minute as the section 39 agencies battle it out with the HSE and strikes and work to rule look likely, however, some bright spark in HR instructed payroll to deduct the paycut in my pay by accident, they will reimburse me now the error is discovered. Ah well now I know my pay is going to be down by €278 per month when it eventually gets implemented. But I love my job and I am working with 5 children under 5 with multiple disabilities at the moment which is great fun.

Cal seems to live in such a stunningly beautiful place, some of the hardships she describes may be mitigated. I have to say, she seems supremely happy with her lot. Below are the first two of a number of photos that she sent me and which I will post on the Blog/Website. The first is of the frozen fringes of the lake. I’m not sure what the second is centred on but the mountains look spectacular.

 

It took me a while to work out the next two although the woodland scene is beautiful. When I blew it up to full size, I spotted a number of deer that Cal was talking about. I have enlarged that section for for delight.

 

3rd February, 2010

Pauline’s Mum is going through a bad patch again. We are currently exploring the possibility that she is wheat-intolerant. The doctor has prescribed a drug that treats irritable bowel syndrome and we have been out to buy the latest product on the market – Genius Bread. I’ve tasted it today and the brown bread tastes almost like bread.

 

We have had heavy snow this morning and tonight. Only we superior beings with 4xwheel drive vehicles can get about the streets. One of the positives from this weather in January has been the marked upturn in sales of 4xwheel drives. Some were beginning to feel battered by the balmy army of climate changers. Now that it is obvious that they are all cheats and criminals, the 4xwheel drivers feel able to crawl back into the sunlight – or in their case, the snow.

4th February, 2010

It is nice to see the new religion – Climate Change – in retreat. The Church has been brought low by sexual cheats. ( If only Mum had lived to discover the full extent of the Irish Catholics’ degeneracy.) and Climate Change desciples are being demoralised by the data cheats upon whose sand they build their castles. One is almost tempted to shout, There is a God!

You may or may not have heard of Steve Penk. He has compered a film clip show on TV but is also a DJ.

He is based in Oldham and when someone rang in to his radio programme to say the traffic was snarled up under a bridge in Chadderton where a woman was poised to throw herself off, he immediately played, after careful consideration, “the classic rock track ‘Jump’ by Van Halen” in order to show empathy with the frustrated motorists. The woman did jump and, as an unrepentant Penk pointed out, “only shattered her feet”. The people of Oldham, the people that I have given 40 years of service to educate, are nothing if not subtle.

5th February, 2010

Pauline & I have been travelling across Europe in one way or another for more than 30 years. Over the past 10 years, we have spent a minimum of 2 months abroad each year. In spite of this and in spite of being meticulous planners, we still get real excitement when we book the next trip and genuine flutters of destabilisation in the week before we set off. Today we had to start arranging medical insurance for six months in Greece, car insurance to cover the period away and, in order to do that, we had to fix our dates exactly. We have changed our minds again and decided to set off from Hull with P&O.

We will leave England on April 13th and return on October 9th. This represents 179 days – one short of the statutory limit for tax purposes. We booked our P&O crossing which is just over 12 hours and costs £470.00. For that we get a Luxury cabin with settee and satellite TV, return passage for us and our car and Dinner & Breakfast.

6th February, 2010

Today we booked the other major leg of our journey – Ferry from Ancona in Italy to Patras in Greece.

 

Normally, this will cost us a minimum of £750.00 but travelling in Low Season has halved the cost. We have booked with Anek Lines. I also had a meeting with my Doctor. She is a wonderful woman as well as a gorgeous blonde. I raised the fact that I was intending to live abroad for six months each year but would still be relying on her for drugs all of which I get free. She was immediately supportive. We have fixed appointments for the end of March and the middle of October.

24th January,  2010

For some reason, Sundays are not quite the same anymore. For 40 years I have got up between 6.00 – 7.00 am and urgently gone out to buy the newspapers. It has always been, for as long as I can remember, the most important thing about Sunday. It has been my religion. In the early ’70s, I would get up and walk two miles to the nearest paper shop to buy The Sunday Times and The Observer. Living in Oldham, I had to get up at an early hour to buy these papers because the paper shop would only carry two or three of them. They were not popular in Oldham. The Sunday Mirror or News of the World – No problem. The shop would have hundreds of them but not the ‘posh’ papers. I’ve never had them delivered because they arrive far too late. I read them avidly from cover to cover. They take me about 4-5 hours. If I waited for them to be delivered, I’d never get them finished. In Greece, they cost me about £10.00 and last two or three days.

For some reason, now that I have got all day every day to read the newspapers, they have lost a little of their specialness. I no longer read The Observer, anyway. It hasn’t been the same since Tiny Rowlands relinquished it. Nowadays, The Observer competes to be the most boring paper in the world – and wins. I have had to file it under ‘Life’s too short’. Nowadays (I hate that word.) I read The Sunday Telegraph. I particularly like it for the City/Financial pages. I also find it provides an interesting support in opposing the whole Climate Change lobby.

25th January,  2010

Had the entire Health Club to ourselves today. As we sat in the jacuzzi overloooking an empty and glassy pool, we pretended that we were in our own private facility. This dream was soon shattered, however, when I called the butler to bring us a drink and no-one came.

It is so nice to have the time to explore the world and, in my own small way, document it. I love photographing things. I bought left, a digital camera. It cost £700.00. It is a Cannon EOS 500D and I absolutely love it. I forgot to leave it in my office when I left but never mind.

I used to video everything at one time. I have dozens of tapes of Greek Islands in the 1980s & ’90s on analogue tape. As part of my Retirement Project I have bought a VHS – DVD copier/recorder. School provided me with boxes of re-recordable DVDs, which I forgot to leave in my office. I am starting to digitise the old tapes so that I can edit them on my computer. As a result, I have started to get interested in videoing again. I went out and bought a small camcorder today. It is a Samsung and so tiny you can stick it in your pocket. It only cost about £150.00 which is half the price I paid for an Analogue one 15 years ago. That was huge and cumbersome. If I get in to it again, I will buy a better one.

   

27th January,  2010

Fun-packed day after a wonderful work out at the Health club. We drove to Leeds – up the M62 – to IKEA. It is always amazing how quickly we can get to Leeds on a weekday off peak time. First thing in the morning, it might take up to an hour but by 11.00 am we can do it in 20 minutes. We want to shade the sides of our pergola in Greece with white, cotton curtains in a tented effect to moderate the sun. Pauline was all ready for buying material and making 15  3m x 1m curtains. This would have taken her a fair while. We suddenly noticed that IKEA sold packs of two, cotton white curtains in exactly the right size with attachments for £10.00. We bought 8 packs. If you’ve ever walked round IKEA, you will know that it is a hideous and extremely trying place. We arrived home shattered and fell asleep.

We were awake well in time for the big match. (well I was) I thought City played well but United were undoubtedly the better team and Rooney, Giggs and Scholes were in a class of their own.

28th January,  2010

Went to Oldham to see my friend and ex-colleague, Brian Robinson. He has just retired too and is completing the doing up of his cottage in the Dordogne. Then we went on to Pauline’s Mum to make Lunch for her. She wolfed down cheese omlette with potatoes and mushroom sauce.

The Pound has strengthened against the Euro so we took the opportunity to send £7000.00 over to our Greek Bank. It always annoys me how much Nat West charge us for the privilege. I also received a phone call from the Manager of Tesco’s On-Line Savings Bank. We had intended using it for some of our regular savings but it’s procedures are so convoluted that we gave up. I am fairly ICT literate and I was even a member of the pilot group for Nat West’s first foray into internet banking about ten years ago. Tesco defeated me and I wrote to point that out. We switched to Principality BS on-line accounts quite easily and told Tesco so. They rang to say that they were going to forward my plans to Head Office. I am expecting a call any day to use me as a National Advisor.

29th January,  2010

Went swimming at 8.45 am. Arrived home at 9.15 am. Pool was full of madly aggressive old ladies. I ran away. Pauline went out to meet a friend and left me quivering in the lounge watching Blair give his evidence to the Iraq Enquiry.

30th January,  2010

Absolutely gorgeous day today. How did I spend it – cleaning the windows! Exactly a year ago we spent about £15,000.00 replacing our sofwood windows with PVCu (dark wood effect) windows. Our house is south facing and the windows had taken a pasting from the sun. Our house is three storeys and the drive is sloping up to a half height roof. These things combined mean that no one in Quarry Court can get a window cleaner to risk life and limb. We bought our replacement windows in the depth of recession on a half price offer from a local and long established firm , Coral Windows of Bradford. They were an excellent firm and we are delighted with our windows. However, Pauline pointed out this morning as the sun streamed in making the windows look filthy, we haven’t cleaned them once yet. Of course, a lot of the time we were in Greece but that is no excuse. We bought designs which open and turn so that the outside can be cleaned from the inside. That was the excitement for the day.

18th January, 2010

I am a Type 2 diabetic because I am so fat. It means I have to have my feet and eyes checked every year by diabetic specialists. Fortunately, neither are showing signs of diabetic damage but I do have them checked. Also, because I only have the sight in one eye, I have always been careful about attending check-ups. I go twice a year. My glasses check is due now and I am about to make an appointment at Specsavers for a test. My eye test is free and I usually get new glasses at the same time.

When I was 7 years old, in 1958, it was noticed that I kept walking in to lamposts and walls. I constantly had plasters across my nose. The Repton Primary School Doctor who visited once per term, first picked up that I was deaf in my left ear. As I left the classroom where I was being tested, I walked in to the the big, mahogany door. I was called back and given an eye test. They discovered that I was blind in my left eye. What had been going on with my left side in the womb I really don’t know. Even then, I was determined not to be a left-footer.

I was sent to the Derby Royal Infirmary Eye Clinic where I went with Mum. We must have gone on the bus but I can’t remember. I was prescribed glasses and we were sent to the Opticians connected to the hospital. It was called Wozencroft Opticians.

Wozencroft Opticians
59 Osmaston Road
Derby

I was tested and measured and told I would have National Health wire frames because they were ‘free’. I had to wait almost two months for them to arrive in the post. I remember it quite clearly because I couldn’t wait to show them off. I broke them within a month by sitting on them and had them stuck together with tape for ages. I bet Mum couldn’t face another bus journey. I checked today on Wozencrofts Opticians and it is still there. The name sounds Jewish or Polish Jewish to me but a quick search tells me it is old English and related to Wolstencroft.

Specsavers have a site where you can preview their frame designs and try them against your face. I don’t have an easy face to suit and have always tended to wear big, steel frames until the kids at school told me I wore 1970s pornstar glasses. I don’t know how they knew. Now I check the frames carefully. These are some examples that I’ve tried:

   

 

19th January,  2010

Pauline had to go to the hospital to have a disconcerting patch of skin on her forehead checked out by the dermatologist. Fortunately, it appears to be nothing to worry about. More disappointing was Man City’s win over United.

20th January,  2010

Pauline’s Mum’s health seems to be stable at the moment. I wish the same could be said of her TV. Flat-bound as she is, her television and DVD are lifelines and even more so now that cataracts are making reading difficult. We bought her a wide-screen tv 18 months ago but it died today and she was lost without it. We drove over the Pennines and bought her a new set, delivered it, installed all the Freeview channels and took the old one away. I don’t know if you’ve bought a TV recently but they are so (comparatively) cheap. We bought a Hitachi 32” LCD for her flat which won’t take a much bigger size. It cost us £270.00. No wonder no one repairs them. She is delighted with it. She says it is like being at the Pictures. So that’s fine!

21st January,  2010

I have always loved food as long as I can remember. Coming home from school after Rugby training to find tea not made, i remember eating my way through half of one of those sliced loaves from the pantry, thick with butter, and then looking forward to tea as normal – terrible pastry tarts, one plain one fancy biscuits. What were we doing? Pauline is a trained cook. She is brilliant. I like to think I can cook but then Pauline does the same thing a week or two later and there is no comparison. Unfortunately I didn’t learn the basics and find myself making it up as I go along – and making crass mistakes. As a cook, I am imaginative and enthusiastic but technically flawed. It gives me so much pleasure that I carry on.

I thought it was quite sad when Jane wrote to me recently and said she wasn’t interested in food. It almost seems like she is saying that she’s not interested in life. After oxygen (and wine), food is the staff of life. Of course there are those who eat to live and there are those who live to eat. I am definitely in the latter group. Combining lovely, fresh ingredients and producing wonderful tastes is an absolute delight for me. Today I cooked a version of Cod Provençal accompanied by Dauphinoise potatoes for dinner. I am pleased to say my supervisor thought it quite successful.

 

There are others in my camp. I received these incriminating photos recently of the meeting between Ruth & Kevan and Caroline & Les in Derby over the New Year. They ate in an Indian restaurant, I believe although that is one place you would never find me. I’m not too keen on Derby either. Have you noticed how often Ruth is seen with a glass of red wine in her hand? I’m beginning to worry about her.

 

As we arrange our drive through Europe in ten weeks time, we are planning to stop in Colmar, a medieval town in Alsace which produces wonderful wines, in Bolgna, the food capital of Italy and in Le Marche, home to the peasant cookery style  (so close to my own) of Italy

22nd January,  2010

Our computers and our Study are in the process of being tidied out. The computers still store ludicrous papers about Pedagogic Styles with an Interactive White Board  and Bringing Departmental Delivery in line with Virtual Learning Environment. If anybody would like a copy it is too late. This absolute nonsense has gone the way of all digital things. The Study has guides to Children’s Care, Learning & Development (who cares?) and Making Inclusion Happen (Include me out!) These were the stuff of mine and Pauline’s management trade. We should have been ashamed of ourselves. All of this rubbish will go to the tip but some things won’t.

After a new hard drive in my computer, I have had to import from the ether a backed-up copy of Pauline’s financial accounts going back to 22nd January 1993. Before that she was using account books. These are not being thrown out ever. The first book began on 25th September, 1981. I attach the first page of it for interest.

My first monthly pay cheque in October 1972 was £62.00. My annual salary was £950.00. You will see that by 1981, I was taking home £457.22. I was earning nearly £7,500.00 per year. How rich was that? Pauline took home £368.12 and earned about £6000.00 per year. It allowed us to buy Slade House, go on holiday to Greece, buy a new Datsun Cherry and eat out at the Sole Mio. For those of you who don’t remember the Datsun Cherry, I include one below. They only had a wing mirror on the driver’s side and that fell off.

As you will see, a meal at the Sole Mio – our local Italian – cost £10.75 (a 3 course meal for two with wine.) Today it would be £75.00.

23rd January,  2010

Since the beginning of the world, Leeds United have been hated for their thuggish lack of sophistication. For any sentient being alive to football in the late ‘60s and the ‘70s would recognise this characterisation particularly exemplified by Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter. Strange it was, therefore to find oneself supporting underdog, Northern Leeds against those Nancy-boy, superior Southerners, Tottenham Hotspur.  And how wonderful to see Beckford score an equaliser in the 96th minute. Sometimes begin to wonder if there is a god!

10th January,  2010 

Got an email from Liz with her new address: liz.bruce@manchester.gov.uk but, as she stresses, you must “keep it clean and appropriate please even Gods can be sacked!”

5.00 pm today it started snowing.

11th January,  2010 

5.00 pm today it stopped snowing. Twenty Four Hours of continuous snow has given our area its worst travelling conditions of the winter. To make matters worse, my hard drive suffered a catastrophic collapse and gave up the ghost. I couldn’t revive it in Safe Mode and resigned myself to starting again. Usually, someone at work would give up their time to set up a new hard drive for me but now it means a trip to the techies at PC World. My machine cost £2000.00 three years ago from Evesham Computers. It went out of business a year ago. The convention in our house is that I change my machine every 2 – 3 years and hand my old one down to Pauline. Fortunately, that is still available and on-line. I’ve already had to take a new Desktop and a laptop to Greece.

Another of the nine apartments that we are interested in in Surrey has been sold. We are starting to get a bit jumpy but there may be good news ahead.

12th January,  2010 

Snow clearing and swimming are the order of the day. Our old school is still not back in session since Christmas. Even as they clear the snow, the problems get worse. The local newspaper, The Oldham Chronicle, reported middle of the night call outs as pipes burst throughout the school.

Even Bob sent me some pictures of snow. This first one is the pond in his back garden:

and this second one is of two of his friends out on a walk:

The snow does look bad around Maidenhead but Bob does want you to know that he never really needed my help.

In between clearing snow, I am transfering old, analogue VHS video camera tapes of Greek holidays to digital DVD. I will then transfer the film to my PC (when I’ve got it repaired) to be edited. The juxtaposition of the snow of 2010 all around us while we watch the searingly hot scenes of 1990 in Greece is weird but wonderful. Did I say snow clearing? It’s 11.00 am and has just started snowing again.

13th January,  2010 

Today we are supposed to be driving down to London to put a deposit on an apartment. I am writing this on Tuesday evening because I expect to be leaving at 4.00 am. However, recent weather forecasts suggest snow all down the M1 as we drive. We are considering going on Friday now but that means we won’t be able to meet Ruth & Jane on Saturday. We’ll make a decision at 4.00 am today.

We left at 5.00 am. As soon as we opened our garage door, we knew it was sheet ice outside. The temperature was -4ºC. We slid  sideways down the Quarry Drive on to the main road which was also sheet ice and then had a steep hill covered in black ice to contend with on our way to Ainley Top and the motorway. Two cars with their front ends smashed in from two separate incidents the night before were left on the side of the hill. We struggled up one side and down the other to the M62. The motorway was fine but thoughts of the precious road rather undermined my confidence in it.

By 6.30 am we stpped at Trowell South Services (no I’ve never heard of it either – It’s near Ilkeston.) for coffeee. Just as I was parking, I laughed my socks off as this little dumpy woman in bobble hat and pink boots did the splits as she hit the tarmac. I thought she must be drunk. I got out of the car still laughing and promptly fell flat on my face. The entire car park was glassy, black ice. Short of crawling on all fours, we couldn’t reach the coffee shop. We had to drive round to the undercover petrol station and get coffee there. Good job really because Pauline was desperate for the loo.

We continued to drive and light snow began to fall. We drove on but, as we approached Rugby, the snow came down heavily, the traffic increased and the motorway turned white. Our mobile went and the lady we were going to meet from the sales office in Surrey phone Pauline’s mobile to say, “Don’t bother coming. It’s taken me an hour to drive the mile from my house.” We turned round and drove home but that’s where our trouble started.

As we approached the top of the hill down to our house at about 11.00 am, walkers stopped us with tales of the black ice and carnage of cars on the hill. We turned round and drove three miles to the start of the other approach road to our home only to find it closed by the police because of a bad accident. We thought we weren’t going to get home. There was one last way – another couple of miles detour which led to a cobblestone hill (locally known as The Cobbles).

Gingerly, we drove passing car wreck after car wreck. We actually reached The Cobbles and the rutted surface actually helped our ascent. To our horror, the road leading to our quarry was sheet ice lined on both sides with abandoned cars. The quarry was half blocked with cars which couldn’t move. More by luck than judgement, we manoeuvred inch by inch until we faced the mouth of the quarry which was still thick with snow. Our car likes snow and we shot up to our garage, automatic doors opening gratefully and swallowing us up.

14th January,  2010 

I woke up bruised and aching this morning. I think I’ve sprained my big toe. I must remember that I’m not a 25 year old rugby player any more. Of course, I take warfarin which causes internal bleeding and my skin bruises angrily like a purple wheal across my flesh. Still I felt better after tea and toast and a phone call to say my computer was ready for collection.

Today’s Huddersfield Examiner reported:

FREEZING ice chaos hitting Huddersfield has been described as the worst ever seen by police and highways staff. One of Huddersfield’s most experienced traffic officers said the chaos caused by icy roads led to more than 100 accidents and grit stocks in Kirklees remain at “critical level” with stocks dwindling despite the cutbacks in gritting.

Once again today, 92% of the schools across Kirklees were closed again. I really don’t know what’s happening in Education nowadays. They’re probably all at home watching the cricket. England all out for 180. What is Peterson doing?

15th January,  2010 

My PC, which cost me £2,500.00 three years ago has had a £50.00 new hard drive fitted and is ready to be picked up from PC World. A lovely Techie called Rabnawaz has worked on it, putting back Vista Premium and all the service packs. He has upgraded all my drivers for me. I do it myself but all of them at one sitting was monotony personified. I’ve still got to hook all my hardware up, recreate my home network and then download all my files from my internet-based Sky Drive, including my websites. I have to reinstall Ms Office 2007, MacromediaSuite (Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash), AdobePhotoshop, Acrobat Professional  and one or two other lesser programs.  It takes hours. It will fill Sunday.

Back to Surrey this lunchtime. I certainly couldn’t take any more Test Match today. We are hoping to look at one of the three remaining apartments in the building we have both liked and, possibly, to semi-secure it with a deposit.

16th January,  2010 

The journey down was good yesterday but we couldn’t get an appointment and had to wait till today. The meeting wasn’t until lunchtime so we were almost certainly going to miss meeting Ruth & Jane in Yorkshire. That would have been historic and Ruth will probably kill me. I feel very bad about it (if she’s reading this). The apartments left are not really good enough and we decided it was better not to commit ourselves. Didn’t leave Surrey until 5.00 pm and traffic was bad on the way back. It took nearly five hours and I was shattered. I just got in to see highlights of Chelsea put seven goals past Sunderland. I hate Chelsea.

17th January,  2010 

Woke up shattered. I must be getting old! Spent the day bringing my computer up to spec before uploading Bob’s photo on the web and bringing my Blog up to date. The snow is beginning to thaw. I think I see a little bit of lawn this afternoon. Tomorrow, we will return to our work pattern: up at 7.00 am, shower and large cup of tea, off to the Health Club for 9.00 am. Swimming, Jacuzzi, Steam Room, a bit more swimming and off by 11.00 am; coffee and The Times followed by what ever we want. Sounds wonderful.

3rd – 5th January, 2010

The snow has been totally incapacitating here this week. To make matters worse, we had to leave our car with the repairers for two days. There are only a few days a year when a 4-wheel drive is essential each year and we contrived to give ours away. I wrote of a young lad reversing into our car in Sainsbury’s car park just before Christmas. The damage was minor but needed repairing. We had a date for repair before Christmas but the snow came so we cancelled and rearranged for Monday-Tuesday this week. We couldn’t back out again as the snow threatened. We drove through a blizzard to deliver our car and pick up our Honda Jazz courtesy car.

It is difficult enough changing a large, luxurious car for a little runaround but this was manual and just front-wheel drive. As we drove home, the falling snow was already causing major problems for drivers. We made it and shut ourselves away for two days. I watched the Test Match. It wasn’t going entirely to plan. South Africa were getting on top.

I thought you might like to see a local garden party, and photos of the road:

    

Also I have two photos of Jane BG in the snow:

 

At least I got some wonderful photos from Ruth illustrating that her snow was pretty deep as well.

   

Twenty Five years ago Bjorn Rodnes, a Norweigian Ceramics teacher  in our school left us to go and lecture at the University of Edinburgh. We have never seen him since. However, every year of that 25 we have exchanged a Christmas Card. In fact we have exchanged the same two Christmas Cards throughout that 25 years. This is the one for this year. Obviously, it is stuffed with twenty five years of notes on pieces of paper stuffed inside the card. We really treasure it and look forward to receiving it.

6th January, 2010

Pauline’s Mum had three Hospital appointments this week. Each one we go on means a 40 mile round trip and takes half a day. This week it should have been:

• Skin cancer on nose check up.
• Pre-Cataract operation assessment
• Internal scan

Because of the weather, they were all cancelled. The upside and downside of this was that I had all the time in the world to watch the Test Match. It was quite surreal. The entirety of our little world had shut down because of weather. All the schools were closed. Our old school was closed for the week which rather miffed us. Kirklees ran out of gritting material. Nowhere had rock salt for sale. The Test Match was conducted under brilliant blue skies and searing temperatures.

7th January, 2010

England won a famous Draw in the Test Match.

The meter linked to my computer told me that by 10.00 pm tonight the temperature was down to -12°C. Our new Electricity Monitor was working overtime.

8th January, 2010

Had an email from Jane earlier in the week. She was telling me of the places she is intending to visit over the next few months. I think it is meant to be a counterpoint to my talking about spending so much time in one place – id est  Greece for 180 days in 2010. Jane says she is holidaying in Peru in August. This suddenly triggered a memory in me that I don’t remember telling anyone about before.

When Bob went to the Antarctic (I’m not sure exactly when that was), Mum was very worried about him. Every time I phoned home she spoke about it. I think it must have been about 1974 or so. I was only a couple of years in to my teaching career and I didn’t know how to placate Mum’s fears. She told me it was my job to look after my little brother. My knowledge of where he was based was ludicrously minimal. (I passed GCE Geography by writing about Indians eating rice.) Anyway, I can see myself now – aged about 23-24 – in the school library with a pupil’s atlas checking on where South Georgia was. When I found it, I thought, “There’s no way I’m going there!” The next best thing, I thought, was to get as close to him as I could then, if anything went wrong, I wouldn’t be too far away. Where should I go? I consulted the atlas.

South America looked a short hop from South Georgia. What’s in South America? I consulted the atlas. Chile? Chile in 1974 was not a good place to be. I chose Peru as the next best place.

I got the Times Educational Supplement and looked up ‘Jobs in Peru’. Immediately I found one. British Council: Teachers of English in Peru. I wrote off immediately without thinking and without telling anyone. A month went by and I heard nothing. I completely forgot about it. One Saturday morning a brown envelope arrived. I had an interview in London a week later. I went to tell the Head that I needed time off to go to London and that I needed a reference. At that point, my good will crumpled. The Head didn’t want to lose me, offered me a better job and I ditched Bob to fate and accepted the additional £1000.00 a year or what ever it was.

9th January, 2010

I received a touching email from Caroline yesterday. I can’t believe what she is going through. I know she won’t mind me sharing it with you. This is what she wrote:

Dear John,

What a lovely week we’ve had, it took us 4 hrs to drive a two hour journey back from Cork airport on Sunday.

On Monday we discovered we were living on borrowed time with our water, the pipes were frozen from our well and we were living on the water in the tank and we had loaned our friends across the mountains our water butts as there system had failed. We rang John R’s our friendly local builders merchants, all out of water butts! We were iced in and I returned to work, I had to walk all the way from the back bedroom to the front bedroom, to my office. The washing is lying stinking in big heaps and the dishwasher is full of dirty ware.

On Wednesday we attempted to get out to buy bottled water. It took us an hour to crawl a mile and half to Blackwater Bridge and back, the main road was closed. We finally got out on lunchtime to buy 41 lites of bottled water for drinks and cooking, another cannister of gas and much needed rations for ourselves and the birds. We met the whole valley and exchanged words about of all things the weather.  But the most important purchase was Batiste dry shampoo, once home again I re-acquainted myself with batiste dry shampoo, you spray it on massage in, brush through and viola you hair is miraculously clean. I had to use it for the first 6 months when we bought the cottage and had no running water.

On Thursday night – suddenly there was a big cracking noise then a series of smaller ones. Les went up in the loft and outside to check the chimney. A block had cracked next to the chimney.

 On Friday, Les rang assorted mates, Dick, Simon and Mike to find out what the story was with said chimney. The result the previous owners must have had a fire in the chimney at some stage and not had it repaired. The solution a new chimney liner has to be fitted, Les rang John R’s again, it will take 3 days to get itIn the meantime he discovers that indeed a trickle of water is getting into the tank so there is a real possibility that we will have a shower, yippee, I am doing cartwheels. A man on Radio Kerry announces that this weather is here to stay until possibily March, the first year we have to disconnect the central heating boiler due to the extension and we have the coldest winter in decades and pay cuts, oh the joys.

Love Cal x

PS: Welcome to reality with the car most people drive runarounds and can’t afford luxurious ones

This is Cal and Les on their wedding day – 30 December, 2000. This will be Photo of the Week next week and will be accompanied by her story.

27th December, 2009

Pauline’s Mum went back to her flat today. At lunchtime we drove her over the snow-covered wastes of the Pennine Moors to the wastes that we call Oldham. She was happy and Pauline had made her a Turkey & Stuffing sandwich to take with her for her lunch. She was going to practise on a tin of beans with her new can opener.

Sunday papers, Test Match followed by football. Heaven! The cricket went well and I would say that England were slightly ahead.

Watched Arsenal beat Aston Villa and Hull lose toMan. United who played played poorly but ground out a result.

 

A day of eating leftovers before the big diet. I had to eat Gravadlax (home-cured), Roast Ham (home-cooked), a terrine of pork and partridge with beef fillet and bacon (home cooked), Christmas cake (home baked & decorated), minced pies (home baked with home made mince meat), Full Cream Ice Cream (home made). All that was after a bacon sandwich for lunch (toasted home made bread). Lunch was washed down with half a bottle of Claret and Dinner was completed with a bottle of Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. Bring on the diet, PLEASE!

28th December, 2009

Freezing outside. Got up at 7.00 am and went swimming. It was delicious. The pool was empty for an hour as were the jacuzzi and steam room. As I drove to the Health Club, the sky was gloriously rich. There was virtually no breeze and the sunh shone.

 

En route, I stopped to take a photo and was suddenly mobbed by all these animals wanting my autograph. I tried to shun them but one , Shauna, particularly sheepishly demanded the right to be herd.

 

29th December, 2009

Pauline’s Mum had to be taken to Hospital for her cataract operation. Why do these obligations always clash with the Test Match? England scored  575 – 9 Declared and then proceeded to skittle out the first six South African wickets and I spent five hours sitting in a Hospital car park while Pauline’s Mum was waiting to be told that her eyes were too dry for a cataract operation she had been waiting for for months. I had to make do with Test Match Special on Radio 4 Longwave.

30th December, 2009

Thirty one years ago this morning, we woke up to thick snow everywhere. It was the morning of our wedding. I really enjoyed the day. Our little house was crammed with family and friends. It was lovely.

   

The intervening years have been fantastic. Thirty one years later, we have woken up to thick snow and a blizzard. We stayed tucked up to celebrate our anniversary. We planned our Spring Departure to our Greek Home, had champagne and canapés for Lunch followed by Pheasant in red wine jus with roasted root vegetables for Dinner. Just had time to watch Man United thrash Wigan before going to bed.

31st December, 2009

Happy New Year to All Our Readers.

1st January, 2010

Fought our way over the Pennines today to visit Pauline’s Mum. The road was bleak, treacherous but spectacular. Without a 4-wheel Drive we wouldn’t have attempted it.

   

2nd January, 2010

Just managed to get the papers today before the snow set in for another day. This Global Warming is driving me mad. The Times says this has been the coldest December for thirty years. Some wacky scientists have been observed that a totally unexpected lack of solar activity over the past Decade which parallels a similar solar phase in the Eighteenth Century as a lack of sun spots accompanied earth cooling is merely masking Global Warming. They also think it is possible for 5 billion angels to dance on the head of a pin.

Had texts and phone calls from Caroline and Ruth throughout the day. Caroline has been in England (well nearly – Newcastle actually) for the New Year period. She managed to persuade Newcastle & Derby to Draw 0-0 and then went down to leave flowers on Mum’s grave. She drove past Mum’s old bungalow but says she could see little signs of change. She agreed to meet Ruth in Derby. Cal was staying at The Stuart Hotel in Derby.

Ruth had to drive with Kev, I think, through snow down to Derby. She had a difficult journey and got lost in Derby. Who wouldn’t?

20th December, 2009 

Snowed incessantly around Yorkshire today. Just managed to get the Sunday papers before it set in. Elsewhere in Britain the Eurostar service has been cancelled stranding 75000 travellers and 2000 were trapped in the tunnel all night while thousands of cars and lorries parked along the M20 unable to move. Lovely cartoon in The Sunday Telegraph today:

21st December, 2009 

The shortest day of the year. It actually felt like it today. The sun shone in a crystal blue sky and seemed low to the horizon all day, skimming the snow drifts. Diggers came and released us from our snow-drift prison just after lunch. We drove over the Pennines to see Pauline’s Mum. Thought you might like to see some shots of the moors on the way over:

     

 

This is on the Nont Sarah’s road (A640) running parallel to the M62. It is a favourite for hang gliding. They throw themselves off the side of the escarpment and out across the moor.

22nd December, 2009 

The snow came in waves today. There was white-out at times on the M62.

The best place was tucked up with a glass of dry sherry, a mince pie and a copy of The Times. Started to plan our trip across Europe in the Spring to our home in Greece. Making lists of all the things we must take with us:

• 50″ LCD TV
• 2 x Garden Spade
• 2 x Garden Fork
• Video Camera
• Enough wine for 6 months
• Etc, Etc, Etc.

Usually, Christmas holidays are the time to book sailings: Hull – Zeebrugge (return P&O) and Ancona – Patras (return Superfast) plus Piraeus – Sifnos (return Hi-Speed). We would already have bought our Easter flights last Summer. Not this year. We expect to leave in April without booking anything. We will not drive to Hull but down to Dover and sail to Calais. We will drive until we want to stop and then find a hotel in France and then another one in Italy and the one in Patras, Greece before arriving at our island. We will take any ferry that is available as long as it is comfortable. We won’t book returns.

23rd December, 2009 

Had to do the hoovering today. Fortunately, the hoover overheated half way through the house and I had to stop. Like 90% of the country, we have a Dyson. We also have new carpets throughout the house. Dyson’s have a tendency to clog up their filters and overheat. New carpets give off a lot of fluff. This is our Dyson and it’s rubbish.

Pauline’s niece, Mandy, is a Director of Xerox. I’ve probably told you all this before but she gave up work for three or four years and adopted three little boys. They are now growing up well, attending Private schools and playing every sport imaginable. They play at the London Irish club where James (the middle one) is quite a star. Daniel, the youngest one is good at football and has been spotted by a scout from Premier League, Fulham Football Club. He has been invited to join their Young Academy. This is the three brothers in their London Irish kit:

24th December, 2009 

A blizzard hit us this morning around 9.00 am. We set off at 10.00 am to cross the Pennines to get Pauline’s Mum. Fortunately, a 4 wheel drive makes mince meat of these conditions. Unfortunately, she is so frail compared with this time last year. The first entry of this Blog (Week 1 : 25th December, 2008) was a picture of Pauline and her Mum. A year shows quite a big difference. Certainly, this year walking is much more difficult. The stairs are like a mountain. Well, they are for me too.

25th December, 2009 

Happy Christmas one and all! Up at 7.00 am as usual. This is the scene outside:

We always have the traditional Sanders Breakfast – Toast and home-cooked Ham although I eat it with Dijon mustard. Pauline & I don’t give each other Christmas presents and haven’t done for years – not since our first Christmas together when we gave each other 40 presents each. Pauline’s Mum got presents – a new skirt and house shoes, books and an easy use electronic can opener. They are really brilliant. You literally plonk them on the can and press a button.

  

Because the rest of Pauline’s family is in Surrey, we have to take photos to send to them to prove we are enjoying ourselves:

   

The turkey is cooking along with sage & onion stuffing and force meat stuffing. Potatoes & Parsnips are par boiled. Sprouts are waiting in the pan of water for the starters gun. The bread sauce is already prepared as are the pigs in blankets. Mum would approve. She wouldn’t approve of the cheer that went up when I watched the Pope being forced to the floor by some sex-starved woman during Midnight Mass in Rome.

Pauline & I never drink champagne. It doesn’t really agree with either of us. Today at 11.00 am , I settled down to an hour and a half of How England Won the Ashes on Sky Sports and drank a bottle of pink champagne that Pauline’s niece, Mandy, had bought us. I don’t know if it was the emotion of the event (I had missed the Ashes Series while I was in Greece and only kept up to speed by texts from Ruth.) or the quality of the drink but it was some of the best champagne I have drunk. Oeil de Perdrix:

Cheers everyone!

I meant to applaud Caroline for her immense good taste in Christmas Cards. She sent us exactly the same one that we sent out. Only after hers arrived did I notice that it sponsored Irish charities.

It was officially a white Christmas in Quarry Court with snow falling heavily at 6.00 pm.

26th December, 2009 

Snow turned to rain over night and then froze hard. What do you do on Boxing Day? I did what all good husbands do: I toured the town for a chemists to buy cream to soothe my Mother-in-Law’s Piles. You can’t beat it for fun! Whereas my Christmas Day was calmness personnified, Ruth was doing crowd control – not at Bolton Wanderers because that would have been too easy. No, Ruth was controlling the hordes in her own home!

Look at this lovely Christmas Table setting BEFORE & AFTER & EVEN AFTER THAT:

   

This is Brandon Pickle. Have you ever seen a boy with such wrinkly legs? How do Granny & Grandad Butcher do it?

  

Those responsible for this tribe shall not go unpardoned: