Sanders Blog

5th February, 2012

Quite a bit of snow fell over night. Well, a couple of inches. In Yorkshire, it would just have been a normal May morning. In Surrey, it was akin to walking to the North Pole. We drove out for the papers. Hardly any one was on the road.

Watched Man. U. draw with Chelsea in a match which they should have won easily.

6th February, 2012

The snow is disappearing rapidly. As we waited for a settlement to the Greek bailout negotiations, I spent time researching and reading up on how the Greek economy had been allowed to get to this state. It will form the next chapter in my other, much neglected Blog – Living on a Greek Island. It will be completed and published this week, hopefully, to coincide with the Greek bailout success.

Merkel and Sarkozy have been very reassuring this morning. Germany will not accept Greece going bankrupt, Chancellor Merkel said in an interview this morning. ”We refuse to (accept) a Greek bankruptcy. We can’t accept that,” she told ZDF German TV.

7th February, 2012

Glorious, sunny day. The big, black cat who lives across the courtyard seems happy for the first time in weeks. We are going out for a walk this afternoon.

It was still -3C when we set out for our walk but lovely and sunny. The neighbours black cat kept trying to walk us to his door in the expectation that we would open it and looked quite crestfallen when we didn’t.

Next to our development which is red brick, is the convent building. It looks 1890s – 1900s in style and is built in a yellow ochre/orange brick with some pretentions to neo-Gothic which was popular at that time. It is surrounded by huge fir trees and rhododendrons. In the low, winter sunlight it looks beautiful. Next to it is a wreck of a house with white, painted pebble dash walls, peeling, broken window frames, a botched lean-to-cum-car-port and greying net curtains. It is on the market for just under £600,000.00. You couldn’t buy a garage around here for under half a million and the weird thing is, that hit us as soon as we came down, people don’t seem to care about or look after the outsides of their homes at all. They may do with the insides but they certainly don’t go for curb appeal.

The other strange thing is that we constantly get people trying to sell/buy our property. We get flyers or tatty pieces of paper through the door asking if we would like to sell because buyers are actively looking in the area. You would never get that in Yorkshire. It took us a year to get a viewing. From advertising to sale takes about six weeks around here.

8th February, 2012

One of the things we like about our development is that, even though we are a duplex with our own external front door, we don’t have to have those dreadful ‘wheelie bins’ outside our front door. There is a bin store with about ten, black, mobile refuse bins which are for general rubbish and ten more with blue tops for recycled stuff which I don’t really understand but Pauline tells me that I can put plastic, paper and cardboard in them. Fortunately, there is always space so you can dump anything you want. For example, we were getting rid of an old coffee maker. You just put it in a plastic bag, leave it at the side of the bins in the store and the rubbish men will take it. We had a mattress to be taken. We phoned the council, paid £10.00 over the phone and left our mattress in the store ready for collection. All rubbish is kept discretely out of sight then taken away and dumped on China or Africa or somewhere else.

Today, we have had a scandal. Somebody was spotted – not a resident – dumping a mattress and a large, pink, plastic slide in the store with no prior payment for collection. Fortunately, one of the residents is a private detective and he apprehended the miscreants who admitted they weren’t residents but were related to residents. They just wanted to avoid the charge. We are waiting for action to be taken over this by the Management Group. Oooh!

9th February, 2012

Another Thursday, another early morning at the hospital. Standing, queuing in freezing temperature at 6.45 am is not my idea of fun but it beats sleeping. More blood given. Woking Walk-in Centre have more of my blood than I do now.

Greece tentatively agreed a debt settlement last night. We might be in the clear for a while. It has come at a huge cost to the Greeks, however, who have had to take even more cuts to wages and pensions.

We were visited by Ms Lise Andreassen from the University of London this afternoon. She is doing her Doctorate on people’s adaptation of green technologies that are required in the building of new homes. We tried to convert her to our scepticism of climate change but we didn’t really succeed. Anyway, she is Norwegian.

10th February, 2012

It started to snow here about 7.00 pm last night. It was still snowing at 3.00 am. When we go up this morning at 7.00 am, it was melting in the weak, winter sunshine. This was the scene from our front door:

If you ever read The Magic Far away Tree by Enid Blyton and I lived in it for a week or two when I was six, below is how I imagined it to be:

Because we have some building projects to pay for in Greece when we get back, we will need finance above living costs. Normally, we would electronically transfer money from our English currrent account with Nat. West to our Greek Account with NBG (The National Bank of Greece). With the instability of the Greek economy at the moment, we don’t want to stick £10-15,000.00 in a Greek Bank which might crash so we have had to consider alternative ways. We will buy euros in UK and carry them in big denominations to Greece. When we have had to send large amounts of money (£20,000 – 50,000.00) in the past, we would use Nat.West Standard Transfer for which the would charge £20-30.00 but give us only marginally above tourist rate even though, as Private Banking customers, we were supposed to get preferential rates. Today, I have decided to take the plunge and use a Forex specialist. I bought £5000.00 at €1.1742 which is so much better than Nat West’s €1.12. So I got €270.00 more from I.C.E. (International Currency Exchange) than I would from Nat. West.

11th February, 2012

Got up to a lovely, sunny day with an outside temperature of -11C. This is the lowest we have experienced down here. It will be interesting driving out for the paper.

It was -4C in the garage but the roads were fine. The lady who served us in Asda had come to UK from Tanzania (made up from Tanganyika and Zanzibar) more than 30 years ago. Its first president was Julius Kambarage Nyerere who was very a very forward thinking, Marxist-based, political philosopher. I had to study his Education policy in my first degree. I think she was rather surprised I knew of him. The cosmopolitan nature of society down here is incredible.

Just watched Man. U. cruise past Liverpool like a Mercedes S-Class past a VW Beetle. Very childish behaviour from Suarez but also from Evra at the end.

30th January, 2012

The M62 in West Yorkshire was closed temporarily by snow last night. Here in Surrey, the days are still mild with a little edge on the breeze. We certainly haven’t seen any snow and it is our ambition to go for a whole year without seeing any. We are going through fully blown Spring inside our flat:

The morning started badly with England throwing a victory away and capitulating to Pakistan

and then got worse with United throwing an easy victory away and letting Liverpool in.

31st January, 2012

Last day of January – can you believe it? Cold and frosty outside this morning. In fact, my computer said it was -4C this morning when I got up. We keep hearing that snow is on the way but there is no sign so far. In Greece, for the fourth consecutive year, they have snow. People have been told that they can only drive with snow chains on this week. When you know the poor quality of some of the older houses, they must be freezing.

The debt negotiations seem to go on for ever but really are on the brink of conclusion. You still don’t feel that the Greeks are really meeting the rest of Europe half way but that is duplicitous Greeks for you. The EU said – You must privatise your Nationalised industries. Against their will, the Greeks agreed. The electricity generation industry was opened up with new companies coming in to challenge the state provider. However, the market was so skewed that the state company kept all its advantages of customer list, etc, as when it was a monopoly. As a result, the  competitors collapsed within months and they are back to stage one. Very little else has been achieved in the privatisation process.

Fantastic game tonight in which Everton beat Man. City. It was a really enjoyable match made better by United winning and Chelsea drawing. The icing on the cake was Ashley Cole being sent off. Poor old Mancini blamed himself.

1st February, 2012

Happy February to you all.

Nine weeks until we leave for Greece. With freezing temperatures in Greece and heavy snow in Italy, we have to hope the weather improves rapidly.

Had to do a bit of shopping today and, although the temperature was hovering about 4C, it felt much colder in reality. We should have been going swimming but a delivery – of a new vacuum cleaner – which should have been yesterday and failed to turn up is now rearranged for today. Once again, they have failed to give us a specific time band in spite of bragging on their website and on their answerphone that they do. They even swore blind that they did turn up yesterday and put a card through the door but they are lying. Let’s hope they turn up today.

Phyllis and Colin are coming for Lunch tomorrow so Pauline is busily cooking in preparation for that. I have been replying to a woman from The Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London. She is doing a Doctorate on Green Stuff. She is interested in our exciting experiences of Heat Exchangers and Biomass Burners and how it has made us so much more aware of and responsive to Global Warming and Climate Change. Poor girl! She is in for an interesting afternoon. I think I will open a bottle of red wine to soften the blow for her. She is Norwegian, poor girl!

2nd February, 2012

A day cold enough to take your breath away. By 6.45 am I was queuing outside the walk-in hospital. The doors open at 7.00 am. In that temperature of about -4C, it wasn’t easy standing outside. The doors open at 7.00 am and I was 4th in the queue. Even so, I was home by 7.15 am. and eating breakfast. We had to be out again at 9.15 am for Pauline’s appointment with the doctor to review the results of her x-ray which show early signs of arthritis but nothing much more which is pleasing.

Phyllis & Colin are coming for lunch today so it is my job to dop the hoovering. The new vacuum we ordered has still not arrived so we have borrowed an old Dyson that weighs five tons for me to use. After completing my work, I have a lie down while Pauline completes food preparations. The meal turns out to be wonderful – Steak pie with new potatoes, snap peas in garlic butter, green beans and delicious carrots. Colin was driving but Pauline, Phyllis and I shared a bottled of iced Pinot Grigot. Phyllis and Colin lived 60 years of their lives in Oldham so Pauline tries to create things for them that they can’t get in Surrey. So, she made Holland’s Pies (a mixture of pork and beef in water crust pastry) and ‘Japs’ (a type of multi-layered macaroons) which remind them of their past.

 

We had a lovely meal and Phyllis could hardly walk as she left.

3rd February, 2012

A very cold day. When I went down to the garage, the car read -3C. I drove down to the paper shop on heavily salted roads and the car read -6C. We went out later to do shopping at Tesco and had the car cleaned. I couldn’t imagine what their hands must have felt like in that temperature.

4th February, 2012

I had entertained the hope that I might get through the winter without seeing snow at all. Unfortunately, today a light smattering of snow has fallen. It was very warm in our flat but it is amazing how cold outside affects the psyche. I made Cassoulet for our evening meal – a real, hearty winter warmer.

22nd January, 2012

Breakfast, papers, football. Disgraceful win for City with Balotelli still on the pitch. What was the referee doing? Fairly disappointing win for United given their early dominance.

 

23rd January, 2012

One of the delights of living down here is to take advantage of special offers from Eurotunnel such as a £22.00 return crossing that they sent me today. We have booked this morning to do a shopping trip in three weeks time.

Went to the pool and had a lovely swim. I managed ten lengths this time. We have quite a busy week so the next swim could be Thursday when we will expect to do twelve lengths.

24th January, 2012

A wet day today but not too cold.The app. on my PC shows 3C at 9.30 in the morning. If all goes well today, Amazon will collect our faulty coffee maker and deliver a new one

Amazon have done exactly what they promised. They collected the damaged coffee maker at 11.00 am but didn’t deliver the replacement until 6.30 pm. I will unpack and test it tomorrow.

Watched a really good League Cup semi-final in which Cardif beat Crystal Palace on penalties.

25th January, 2012

Grey and overcast and quite cold outside. After breakfast, we unpacked the coffee maker and made our first cups of coffee. I have a huge, assorted pack of ESE pods. This morning we tried Izzo Caffe 100% Arabica ESE pods from Naples. They were wonderful.

Later in the morning, a nest of coffee tables were delivered from Oakland Furniture. These virtually complete our furniture buying for this year.

This afternoon, we went out a bought Asda’s entire stock of Wash & Go because it was on a very cheap offer. It will be sent to Greece where it is very expensive and I get through something like fifteen in the six months.

26th January, 2012

Woke up at 5.30 am today. I hadn’t slept well because I’ve pulled a muscle around my shoulder blade – probably swimming – and I couldn’t find a single position in bed where it didn’t hurt. When I got up, I found that the toilet in the en-suite had sprung a small leak. The beauty of buying a new property is that, for the first two years, we just phone customer services and a plumber comes round and fixes it for free. By 6.45 am, I was standing outside Wolking Walk-in Hospital waiting for my blood test. By 7.10 am I was home watching England v Pakistan. After breakfast, I fell asleep on the settee.

While she was hoovering, Pauline blew up our Dyson vacuum cleaner and we will have to replace it. Fortunately, Phyllis & Colin had a spare one – as you do – and we have borrowed it. We’ve invited them for lunch next week. Pauline will make Colin’s favourite – meat pie. Colin is, of course, a Lancashire lad and loves the famous Holland’s Pies.

 

27th January, 2012

After breakfast today, the sun came up and bathed the flat in warmth and light. I watched England continue to do a good job on Pakistan. Broad and Panesar were particularly impressive.

Pauline, who went for an x-ray on a lump on her shoulder which seems to be giving her pins & needles and some numbness in her left arm, had a telephone consultation with a doctor today. It seems that is what the do here. It seems that she is suffering from early signs of Arthur as arthritis is know in her family. All the women in her family suffer from it. She is being offered physiotherapy and cortizone injections. We are disappointed as she is so young. Like her Mum, she will probably suffer from it for the next forty years.

After lunch, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful, mild and sunny afternoon and go for a walk. Our property is in Maybury Place which is just off Sandersy Lane. Not only are our gated grounds lovely and quiet but Sandy Lane is a dead end for cars so is also very quiet. At the end of the lane is a narrow, muddy track where only walkers can go but which leads to Maybury Hill and to a gastro-pub with a fantastic reputation for food – The Maybury Inn.

We had a walk up there and back round our own grounds of the old convent which are magnificent.

   

15th January, 2012

A cold, bright and delicious day here today. Sunday papers and football. The temperature outside hardly rose above -3 but we suddenly realised as we went to bed that the heating hadn’t been on all day and we hadn’t noticed.

16th January, 2012

Sun and blue skies in Surrey as Greece play poker right up to the deadlines in Europe. I still expect a deal to be done but they are beginning to make me nervous.

I don’t think I’ve told you before but I am having this recurring dream where I am an English teacher, it is time for a lesson but, when I look in the books, I haven’t marked them. No great deal really but I wake up anxious and then, suddenly, realise that I’m not a teacher any more. Relief floods across me and I go back to sleep. As a teacher, I regularly hadn’t marked the books but it rarely gave me anxiety and I haven’t been an English teacher for nearly twenty years. I could do with ditching this dream. Perhaps I’ll retire from it.

17th January, 2012

Now I’ve retired from it, I’ve got time top watch the cricket. Unfortunately, England decided to have an off day. Pakistan easily bowled them out for under 200.

Spent some time helping Pauline back up her files in the cloud. She uses Windows Live. It really makes sense because her files will always be safe there – as long as she remembers her login and password.

We had an email from our friend, Rania, on Sifnos. We are having about 50 metres of walling built at the front of our property. It is being done by an Albanian friend of ours called Nikos and his team. He doesn’t speak any English but has been to see Rania to tell her that our big, iron gate has been damaged and goats have got in to the garden. He wants permission to go ahead and get the gate repaired. I have had to tell him to do it immediately and I will pay him in April.

18th January, 2012

I’ve enjoyed fresh coffee for a long time and, over the years, I’ve bought a lot of coffee making machines/gadgets. Some have been so complicated, I gave up with them, some have been barely adequate and they sit in a cupboard and some have been great but expensive to use. For example, I have two espresso makers in Greece which I had given up on while we were working in England because they were so messy and time consuming. For five or six years, we have been using pod machines because they are so much more convenient. We have had two Bosch Tassimo machines which have worked well, produced a consistent cup of coffee from a wide choice of pods but cost 25p per cup.

The machine costs about £100.00 and we have had two over the years. Now, however, the second one has gone ‘phut’. I have decided to go back to ground coffee machines but which also take ESE or Easy Serving Espresso pods.

 

I have chosen a Cuisinart Espresso Maker which is reasonably priced at about £170.00. I have also found an on-line firm that will sell me ESE pods at 16p per time.

19th January, 2012

Went to the pool for a swim this morning. It is a competition-sized pool and twice the length of the one we used to use at our Health Club. I was absolutely knackered after six lengths. We haven’t swum for four months and it told on my arms and legs. We just have to keep going back until it improves.

Recently my INR has been all over the place. We couldn’t find a reason for a long time but we now think it is because we have stepped up our intake of green vegetables to try to help me lose weight. Unfortunately, Warfarin is interferred with by Vitamin K. I should avoid things carrying vitamin K like all my favourites:

Asparagus	Lettuce
Blueberries	Parsley
Broccoli	Peas

Pauline is tearing her hair out trying to sort out a diet for me! She’s just made some biscuits.

20th January, 2012

How Amazon managed without us when it started, I cannot imagine. Pauline & I have sustained this economy for all the months we have been back in England but the 0.6% growth in sales in January can be tracked, in its entirety, through our ‘Home Accounts’. Today, a series of delivery men have been ringing our door bell with parcels of items that are going to Greece to get us through the next six months. I think today we have had four since 8.00 am and we still have one to come.

It’s just arrived and it’s beautiful. Typically Italian machined steel. It is heavy and sexy. I love it. It has a three year warranty as well which should just about see me out – not before I die but until I want another one.

You will not believe this. It does not work. IT DOES NOT WORK! It is dead as a dodo even when plugged in. We’ve check the plug and fuse to no avail. It came from Reading this morning by van. I am going to throw it back to Reading from the roof top tomorrow.

21st January, 2012

A grey day illuminated by the emergence of our hyacinth. It seems to be straining a bit but it has been in the downstairs toilet since Phyllis gave it us in November. I think it’s nice.

Didn’t Norwich do well but Chelsea were pretty poor. I can’t feel sorry for Torres. He shouldn’t have deserted Liverpool.

8th January, 2012

Off to the paper shop in beautiful sunshine. I drove past a magnificent camelia tree in full flower. Mum would have been so jealous of flowers in the second week of January.

After watching Man. U. beat City 3-2 in the FA Cup, I produced a spreadsheet of my drug stock and projected forward to the first week of October. These are the sorts of ground breaking things you can do in retirement. I joke but the process is absolutely crucial. I cannot afford to run out and I really cannot afford to buy these drugs in Greece if they were obtainable or not. I’ve worked out that, on the open market, my drugs would cost me £150.00 per month. With the help of our previous doctor in Yorkshire, we have managed to build up a stockpile which reaches to the beginning of October but we need to continue building this up for future years. It seems strange to us that we need to be manipulative like this. Upstanding citizens with a right to medication but who want to travel abroad for six months at a time.

9th January, 2012

Had to go for my annual Diabetic Eye Test this morning. This takes about an hour. I have drops in 20 minutes before the tests. By the time I’m ready, I have to be led by the hand. Nowadays, I have a number of photos taken of the back of my eye. Hopefully, all will be well and I will return for another test next year.

This afternoon, we continued to address our investments which have matured and require attention rather than let banks stick our money in nil-return holding accounts. I’m cooking dinner tonight – seafood linguine – as Pauline has done all the cooking recently.

10th January, 2012

Pauline is brilliant. She has had a little lump – maybe a ganglion – on her shoulder for six months or more. She is prone to these. Ten years ago she had one in her forearm that was pressing on the nerve and had to be cut out in a Birmingham hospital. This one appears to be associated with tingling in her arm and the arm feeling icy cold. Today she went to see a doctor about it. He has referred her for an x-ray. At the same time, she told him about our drugs dilemma when we go to Greece. He immediately reassured us that we could have the drugs that we need on prescription. This was particularly apposite because the Greek News is reporting:

For patients and pharmacists in financially stricken Greece, even finding aspirin has turned into a headache.

Mina Mavrou, who runs a pharmacy in a middle-class Athens suburb, spends hours each day pleading with drugmakers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients. Life-saving drugs such as Sanofi (SAN)’s blood-thinner Clexane and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK)’s asthma inhaler Flixotide often appear as lines of crimson data on pharmacists’ computer screens, meaning the products aren’t in stock or that pharmacists can’t order as many units as they need.

“When we see red, we want to cry,” Mavrou said. “The situation is worsening day by day.”

The 12,000 pharmacies that dot almost every street corner in Greek cities are the damaged capillaries of a complex system for getting treatment to patients. The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists reports shortages of almost half the country’s 500 most-used medicines. Even when drugs are available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.

The financial crisis is brewing a “Greek tragedy” of slowing access to medical care and worsening outcomes for patients, Martin McKee, a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, wrote in an October article in The Lancet.

The Greek Ministry of Health didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

It has always been a problem but is worse now. Pauline’s discussion with the doctor has really reassured us.

11th January, 2012

Another warm and sunny day. We had the front and back doors open to let in the ‘Spring’ sunshine. Greece, on the other hand had this:

Not only had Athens received a dumping of snow which stopped traffic but the winds were Beaufort 9 which stopped all the ferries.

12th January, 2012

Early start this morning. I was outside the Woking Walk-in Hospital at 6.45 am for my INR test. I have found this the best way to get a quick test. Unfortunately this morning, I found myself with the ‘Butcher of Surrey’ and she really hurt me. She had two, vicious but unsuccessful attempts on my left arm. She laughed when she couldn’t find a vein and I was in agony. She took my right arm and began to excavate it with something sharp but failed, once again, to find a vein. Finally, she stuck something akin to a pick axe into the vein on the top of my hand which fountained blood and then swelled up. I walked out in to the still dark morning, covered in swabs and plasters.

After going home to lick my wounds and have breakfast, we went to the Woking Leisure Park. It is, literally, a park which also contains a swimming building with three pools, steam rooms, jaccuzis, etc and another huge building containing gymnasia, etc. We went at 11.30 am. One pool was absolutely empty. Another pool was lightly used. The third pool we didn’t get to see at all. We used to pay £80.00 per month (almost £1000.00 per year) for swimming in a Health Centre. Because we are 60, we can have access through the main part of the day, which is the only time we want to go, for £40.00 per year. We join on Monday.

13th January, 2012

What a lovely day – Friday 13th with clear blue skies and strong sun. We did the London – Brighton Rally today. Well, we did Woking – Brighton in about an hour. It was a delightful drive. We headed for a trawler shop to buy freshly landed fish. It was coming off the boat as we arrived.

  

We bought enough fish – Sea Bream, Bass, Haddock, Cod, etc., to last us a month and then we drove down to Brighton Pier. We deliberately did the ‘old, retired couple’s thing’ of sitting on a promenade bench eating our ham sandwiches and bathing in the winter sun. The sea was flat as a pancake. It was reasonably quiet apart from the sea gulls.

  

We drove home and went to see the Halifax Bank in Woking. Over a month ago, we had transferred a matured ISA each into a new fixed-rate ISA package at 3.5%. We signed all the forms and left. After five weeks, we had received no confirming paperwork. When we contacted Head Office, we were told that the money hadn’t been moved. So customer sensitive are they that, without prompting, they gave us financial compensation and backdated our ISA to the original date but on the new, fixed rate of 3.7%. It’s great when the customer is king as Greece is finding out.

14th January, 2012

Heavy frost this morning. Out early to get the paper. I found the owner’s wife, a nice, big Polish woman, plastering the windows with Closing Down notices. She told me that tomorrow will be her last day of trading because the new Asda which opened up about a mile away has taken all their trade. I’ve only just got to know them and they are so convenient! They are offering the shop to rent so, maybe, someone else will take the battle on.

1st January, 2012

Happy New Year. Happy January to you all! Got a text and then a nice email from Liz today. She hadn’t got my card and change of address because she’d moved. She’s talking about going to live in India. I can’t see it myself but who am I to judge. I chose Greece!

Sunday papers and no wine today. A bitter sweet start to the New Year.

2nd January, 2012

Went shopping in Sainsburys Knaphill this morning. Pauline wanted to take back some pillows that she had bought there and considered rubbish when she took them out of their wrapping. A nice old lady who looked a bit like Mum was trying to cross the carpark road. She seemed surprised and delighted when I stopped the car and waved her across. It doesn’t happen much down here. They’re more inclined to run old ladies over. When I got in to the store, she made a beeline for me. Our eyes met over the rhubarb. “Oh that would make a nice change”, she said. “I grow it in my garden but, of course, it’s not ready yet.” It was one of those nice moments of the day.

This afternoon, we donated our smaller television to Phyllis & Colin for their second set. We have a new one being delivered on Friday and mounted on the wall in the Study. Tomorrow, our little man is coming to put shelves up in the Study. We had to make room for it all.

3rd January, 2012

Our little man, Graham, came from Epsom to put shelves in the study, more towel rings in the bathrooms, three mirrors in various rooms and sundry other small jobs. Working in a apartment is decidedly different to a detached house. For example, he had to wait until after 8.00 am before he started drilling. Then, when you’d predict electricity cables coming up from the floor, in the apartment, they come down from above and Graham, luckily, just missed one as he put up the shelves. We sat on tenterhooks downstairs while he worked.

Actually, I am exhausted. There is no way I could have gone back to work this morning. I was replying to emails until after midnight and the up at 6.00 am to be ready for Graham’s arrival. It’s always the same with us. We can’t wait until the person doing the work has finished, been paid and left. It is not as if Graham is not a delightful and interesting person. He is but we are both uncomfortable with someone doing the work while we are sitting around.

4th January, 2012

Things have gone a bit weird this morning. My friend of 30 years and Honda car salesman, Chris Woods, has sent me a photograph oh him in 1978. He is a lovely man about the same age as me; Grammar School educated; well travelled. I sent him the 2004 Honda pricelist I found and a photo of Pauline & I in 2003. He sent me back a photo of him in 1978.

Our little man, Graham Simkins, did all the final jobs yesterday including putting up shelves in the Study. Today, we are reconstructing the services: plugging back in mono printers, colour printers, label printers, scanners, audio systems, internet hubs, wireless transmitters, DVD and Video editors and checking everything works. On Friday, a large plasma television is being delivered and mounted on the wall. I will then release ‘official’ photos of the new study.

5th January, 2012

We went to the Doctors surgery to collect a repeat prescription for me. We are having something of a tussle. Apparently, NHS guidelines say that prescriptions should not be written for more than three months at a time. We go to Geece for six months. Our lovely doctor in Huddersfield would give us two three month prescriptions and tell us to take them to two separate chemists. She knew we wouldn’t abuse that position. Coming to Woking has put us in a whole, new position. Apparently, they suffer from ‘health tourism’ quite badly here. People sign up, get lots of drugs and then never return. We are struggling to find a way round it at the moment.

6th January, 2012

I know I keep saying this but, in the last three months, we have had so many deliveries, tradesmen, service people coming to our new home. They must number in the twenties by now. Almost without exception, they have been eye-openingly lovely people who are desperate to provide not just a good service but better than that and cheerfully. I ordered a 43″ Flat Screen television with wall mounts from Comet on-line. Because I don’t do ‘work’, I ordered the wall mounting service to go with it from Comet. It was about £100.00 extra. It turned out to be an excellent £100.00’s worth. Two lovely blokes phoned from their wagon to say they would arrive in half an hour. They wished us Happy New Year, brought in the large-ish tv and carried it upstair to the Study. With it they brought the wall mounts, two tool boxes and a vacuum cleaner. The van driver was the passenger’s support in this. I told them exactly where I wanted the television.

Within minutes, they had three different drills out. The wall mounts I’d ordered were universal and came with fittings for fifteen different makes. I would have been thinking about the job for months before calling for ‘a little man’ to fit it for me. Lovely people who had driven all the way from Southampton at 7.30 am did it for me in fifteen minutes with no mess or mistakes. The cost of £100.00 was cheap. Now I have a Study with broadband at the desk, a sofa a widescreen Sky Sports. What more could a man want……apart from nice food, plenty of red wine, female company occasionally???

7th January, 2012

The most beautiful day today. No wonder we don’t need the heating. It is 11C outside and full sun. Squirrels are leaping through the trees here shouting, “When does Winter start? I want to dig up my nuts!” Well, you know what squirrels are like.We read the papers while watch/listening to The Pirates of Penzance which Pauline performed in forty years ago.

We have been back in the UK for 13 weeks and we have 13 left before we leave. Next week is ‘Planning Week’ for our return.

25th December, 2011

Happy Christmas to any one reading this. It has been an interesting and low-key day.

Got up late at 8.0 am and had toast & marmalade with tea. Pauline put in a bit of preparation work for food to be taken with us to Mandy & Kieron’s house. I had asked her to keep it simple this year and not put herself under pressure. I spent my time on the internet, checking ferry prices for our Greek trip in April. Usually, I book them on January 1st. Last year, we got a 50% reduction by booking so early which meant saving about £500.00. This year, shock horror, the companies have trebled their prices and early booking reductions are down to just 10%. Last year, a 24hr crossing of the Adriatic in a Luxury cabin cost us just £500.00. This year, currently, it will be £1500.00. I say ‘currently’ because there is no way that they will be able to hold their prices and big reductions will certainly follow. The game will be how late we can leave our booking.

Pauline is caterer-in-chief at lunchtime and takes her responsibilities very seriously – too seriously if truth be told. I suggested that, this year, she pre-made a simple Starter and the Sweet course so that she only had to worry about the main course. She had pre-made two terrines for Starter – Pork & Pheasant and Fresh & Smoked Salmon with asparagus. It was to be served on a bed of green leaves.

 

We carry everything over in a huge container in the car. When the time came to serve the first course and as I carried out my slicing duties and placing slices on nine different plates, I suddenly learned that each plate needed either servings of fig & apple chutney or tartar sauce, an assortment of green leaves drissled with a mixture of oil & lemon, cracked black pepper and a gherkin sliced three times and fanned out on the plate.

Anyway, it all got done. The turkey was beautiful. By the time the Christmas pudding was served, like so many others across the country, I was too full to eat it. So, everything had gone to plan. The adults chatted. The boys played with their remote control helicopters, Mandy excitedly unwrapped her iPad and showed it around. Then, like the boring old buggers that we are, Pauline & I escaped to the peace and quiet of our own home some ten minutes away. We opened a bottle of champagne and watched Downton Abbey which actually was lifted by the discipline of a Christmas Special and given more bite. We went to bed, tired but happy, as one should do on Christmas Night.

26th December, 2011

Over the years of travelling, Pauline & I have gathered a huge number of photographs which we thought at the time meant something but, through the distance of history, mean absolutely nothing. We have a huge, plastic box full of them. It is almost too heavy to lift. I managed to get it in to the Study but I have no where to put it since the sofa-bed arrived. We are going to spend the morning together going through them all. 95% will then be binned. The remaining 5% will be scanned in and put into a digital collection. I will cry a lot for my past but that is how I am.

What did I mean, spend the morning. It is six in the evening and we have only reviewed half. We’ve got some crackers, though. This was Pauline & me last summer:

 

Well, actually, it was on Milos in 1983 but nothing much has changed. I then found this from 1984. It is the price list for our first Honda – an Accord costing us £7335.00 less £2935.00 we got for our trade-in, a Datsun Stanza. This is the Stanza:

Click on this for the Pricelist. I remember that we were so proud of our Honda Accord. It had Power Steering and Air Conditioning – almost unheard of in 1984. We couldn’t afford a Summer Holiday this year because we had only just bought the car when Slade House became available and we broke the bank to buy it. This poor photo shows the new Accord parked outside Slade House.

Did you see Ruth at the Bolton match? No I didn’t but I bet she wouldn’t have thanked you for waving. She’d probably gone home by Half Time. Poor girl!

27th December, 2011

More photo reviewing today. I am going to start scanning them in for Albums soon and certainly before I return to Greece. I have very few really good ones of Mum and/or Dad and lots of people have said they do. If you’ve got anything, I would be grateful for as high a resolution copy as you can manage.

Half heartedly watched some football today until it got to Norwich v Spurs which I thought was an excellent game. Is it my imagination or is Sky’s football offerings diminished this season? Answers on an email: john

28th December, 2011

Up at 6.00 am and off to the blood testing clinic. Queuing by 6.45 am but there are still three people ahead of me. Back for toast and coffee and then hoovering and tidying. Phyllis & Colin are coming for lunch. It will be their first visit since the carpets went down and the furniture arrived. They’ve only seen a concrete shell.

Received lovely emails from Panos & Rania and from Margharita Katzilieri and all the other girls working in the Accountants office on Sifnos. All wish us season’s greetings and make us look forward to returning.

Just nipped out to Tesco for a few things. Hardly any shoppers at 10.00 am. Are they all in bed still? What a waste of a day. Filled up with petrol before we drove home. It cost £62.00 which is pretty unpleasant but, instead of every week as it used to be, this is spread over three weeks. Two hundred miles in three weeks is almost unheard of in our lifetime!

We did a cost analysis of retirement. We are pleased to find that our annual commitment only consumes 50% of our pension and we feel that is quite a healthy position to be in. We can support two homes and two lives and still save and invest for the future. It feels good and very fortunate.

29th December, 2011

Civil Servants in Greece – about 150,000 adults – are having their salaries cut for the second time in a year. From January 1st, a civil servant with a Degree and more than 30 years service will have their monthly salary cut to just over €1000.00. Prices in Greece are as high as Britain. How these people will live, I have no idea. What effect these cuts will have on the general economy is obvious. Nobody will have money to purchase goods.

After breakfast on a warm day, we went to a place called Knaphill. It’s only about five miles away from where we live but it has a large Sainsburys and a Homebase. We have our little man coming next week to put up shelves and mirrors and we’ve decided to have some more towel rings in the bathrooms. Pauline has bought three more plus a soap, shampoo, and shower gel holder for the walk-in shower area.

In Sainsburys I bought Pauline a big box of Thorntons Chocolates because it is our anniversary tomorrow and we start our new diet and exercise regime on Sunday. We drive home and, after lunch, spend the afternoon doing paperwork. I went through all the Christmas Cards and the only family member I didn’t get one from was Liz which I thought was strange. I did get a text message from her yesterday but I didn’t fully understand it.  Mike’s card just had the word, ‘Mike’ on it but the writing was so bad, Pauline had to tell me what it said.

30th December, 2011

Our Wedding Anniversary. Thirty three years ago today the roads across the Pennines and many other areas of the country were nearly blocked with snow. We had chosen it as our Wedding Day. The Council Gritters had chosen to go on strike. Fortunately, we had a lovely day and everyone who wanted to attend struggled through and made it. We were married in Huddersfield Registry Office although the photo looks a bit Eastern European now

 

and then (to please my Mum) we had a blessing in the Meltham Mills Church just a few hundred yards from our house where we held the reception. Pauline did all the catering and it was brilliant. I had a wonderful day and it was the prelude to a wonderful marriage. I have been so lucky!

 

31st December, 2011

For most people, this evening is one to spend with others, partying, holding hands and singing Auld Lang Syne. Pauline and I have always shunned these activities and chosen to spend the evening quietly over a bottle of wine together. It is how we came in and, hopefully, how we will go out.

Diets can never start until the New Year in our house. December 30th is our Anniversary and then, of course, there is New Year’s Eve to be toasted in. Already, however, plans are afoot for a new Health Campaign as we cut down on eating and drinking and start to visit Woking’s ‘Pool in the Park’. We have both put on weight since returning from Greece. It is exactly twelve weeks since we set foot on UK soil which means we have about that much again before we leave. Actually, it is looking like we will go on April 3rd. Greek Easter is the week after Catholic on April 15th.

It was nice to read in The Telegraph today that house prices have risen more this year in Woking than anywhere else in the country. We’ve always had these effects on places.

Year 4 of the Blog starts here…………….. 

18th December, 2011

2C outside. Heavy frost on the ground. No heating on in the flat which is 22C. We can’t understand how it is like that but we are delighted. In Oldham, we heard that people were ‘snowed in’ but I braved the frost to drive down to the papershop. One has to keep fit, doesn’t one? If only JaneBG could get in to this routine! It beats Nutella on Maltloaf, Jane.

We are still enjoying the spoils of our trips in Europe. Lunch was Duck paté from France washed down by a bottle of Prosecco from Italy. Actually, it may have been washed a little too heavily and three, consecutive football matches on Sky became rather blurred in to each other.

Had a lovely email from Ruth today reminding me that she is my chief Blog reader. She is, of course, absolutely right. Nowadays, I write with her in mind.

19th December, 2011

Today is grey and damp but we don’t mind. We are waiting for more deliveries: shelving and furniture. I’ve forgotten what it is like to sit on a settee. I’ve been living on a sixty year old rocking chair for the last month. We have decided to hang to the Richard Chair for a while longer. We have found just the place for it. While we wait, I am delegated to do the hoovering. We have a Dyson. I hate it. I find it heavy and clunky. On our new carpets, the filter clogs and the motor overheats in minutes. I thought he was supposed to be a design guru.

I don’t think I was made for hoovering especially with a Dyson. The furniture company have just phoned to say that our three settees will arrive on Thursday and they’ve given us a precise time window. It will be between 7.30 am and Midnight. Do wait up.

The Inland Revenue are still pursuing us for £4,000.00 under paid tax from the year 2009-10. It seems bizarre as we have spent our entire lives under PAYE but there it is. It appears that Oldham’s ‘Salaries Department’ were as incompetent as they were stingy. Because we had three separate income streams that year – Teacher’s salary + Redundancy + Teachers Pension – it was all too much for Oldham Accountancy practices. We appealed against the claim but lost although we have managed to delay payment for a year and, now, pleading poverty, we aim to arrange repayment over three more years. It still hurts but it has to be done.

20th December, 2011

A gorgeous morning with clear blue skies and delicious sunshine. First thing this morning, a man from the Developers has been round to investigate a squeak on our stairs. It is on the bottom three treads but, when he assessed it and the upheaval required to our newly fitted carpets to ‘possibly’ erradicate it, we decided to live with it.

Got a phone call from Dave Beasley from his Welsh farmstead where he has been living for the past thirty years with Sue. He will be 70 on Friday. He is fit and well and still goes on long walking holidays, chops down oak trees and logs them for the stove. He is happy and deserves to be.

Another person who deserves to be happy is Ruth and tonight she is. Bolton played well and beat Blackburn. She hasn’t been able to say that too many times this season. She sent me some texts because she knew I’d be watching. She says she will be at the Boxing Day match against Newcastle so all look out for her and give her a wave. I will.

21st December, 2011

Every year, Pauline makes ice cream as an alternative to or supplement for Christmas Pudding. She makes it with double cream and it is so rich, it is impossible to eat a lot without suffering later. Believe me, I have tried many times. She uses an automatic icecream maker which I bought from John Lewis’ Department Store in Manchester 25 years ago. I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was 35 years old, reasonably fit and I was buying it as a surprise present for Pauline. The surprise was on me. The refrigeration unit inside it meant it weighed nearly 50lb and I carried it half way across Manchester to the car. I was nearly dead when I got it there.

Nowadays, we only seem to use it at Christmas for icecream and inter-course (steady) palate cleansers.

Confirmed today that we really do have to pay the Inland Revenue £3,800.00 immediately after Christmas. Well, at least we’ve got it and we’ve managed to prevaricate for over a year.

22nd December, 2011

Joy of joys! Our settees were delivered by mid morning. Two leather settees and a storage footstool for the lounge and a bed settee for the Study. We lounged and lounged. Actually, we didn’t because we had to dispose of the two chairs we possessed which we brought from Pauline’s Mum’s flat over a year ago and which have got us through. One was Pauline’s father’s rocking chair and the other a simple arm chair. We managed to get them in the car and over to Pauline’s niece’s house in West Byfleet.

   

23rd December, 2011

Gloriously warm days as we near the end of December. Thursday and Friday this week have reached 14C / 58 F which feels remarkably warm. I am in a short sleeved T-shirt and we have used no heating for two days.

Pauline & I are cooking Christmas Lunch for Pauline’s sister, Phyllis and her husband, Colin, and their daughter Mandy and her husband, Kieron, and their three boys, David, James and Daniel. Pauline & I like to cook and it keeps us out of trouble. This year we are cooking a minimalist meal:

To start we are having a choice of terrines on a bed of leaves – pork and pheasant with fig & apple chutney or fresh & smoked salmon with tartar sauce – served with slices of Pauline’s onion bread.

The main course will be turkey with forcemeat stuffing and sage and onion stuffing, cranberry sauce, (No bread sauce because I’m the only one who likes it.), pigs in blankets (my favourite part), sprouts with lardons of pancetta and chestnuts, roast potatoes, carrots and peas.

The sweet will be Christmas Pudding and custard or cream or ice cream or all three or home made ice cream with home made meringues and Waitrose raspberries.

Oh, let it be over!

Today, Pauline made the meat terrine and tomorrow she will make the fish terrine. The ice cream and the Chistmas Pudding is already made. The turkey has been collected from the butcher today. The cranberry sauce has been made as has the fig & apple chutney.

I have been working on something very productive and not before time. I have been redesigning my website. I’ve been aware that it’s needed it for over a year but life has been in the way. It won’t all be done in time for Christmas but it will for the New Year.

24th December, 2011

Nobody will persuade me to worry about the Duke of Edinburgh who is so sick of his family that he had to feign a heart attack.

The turkey got well and truly stuffed today. Everything is better prepared than it has ever been. We even had time for a lovely meal of smoked salmon and champagne. Pauline indulged herself in the kitchen with her cooking. I indulged myself in the Study with my website: http://jrsanders.eu/index.html

11th December, 2011

This is the final week of the third year of my Blog. On a personal level, the Blog has recorded some of the most momentous experiences of my life. Its first entry was Christmas Day, 2008. Mum had been dead for just a few weeks and I was hurting badly. Three years on, that hurt is mitigated by the passage of time but she still features in my thoughts regularly. The first day of the Blog featured Pauline’s Mum. She too is now dead and has been for just over a year. Pauline carries her around in her thoughts daily. I, for one, would never have predicted the effects of these deaths on me from my past experience of loss.

During the three years of the Blog, Pauline and I have both stopped running on the treadmill of work after nearly forty years of doing it. Once again, neither of us could have quite predicted the effect it would have on us. We didn’t hate our jobs although we had had enough. We both felt we were good at what we did and could have continued if we had to but, given the chance to stop, would do so unhesitatingly. Well, we were offered that chance and took it just under three years ago and, in spite of being elated with the sense of release, we have also felt a little lost, a bit of a fraud and asked ourselves if we were selling ourselves short. Happily, that phase is behind us and we embrace every morning with huge pleasure as we decided which way life will take us each day.

The third, major dislocation in our lives over the past three years has been our move from Yorkshire to Surrey. We had planned it for many years – hardly believing it would really happen. It has and it is exciting, interesting, challenging. Down-sizing is rarely easy and we have and are still really struggling to get to grips with it. We sold all our furniture but even the merest traces of our past – our pictures, our crockery, glasses, cooking equipment – are causing us difficulties and making us question our move. Interestingly, our energy bills in Huddersfield were £2500.00 per year. In Surrey, by mid-December, we have hardly had the heating on.

For some years we have been looking to spend the entire summer in Greece. Now we have a large house there and spend April – October in Greece. The Greek economy has imploded just like that of so many Euro countries. It is touch and go whether we will sell in euro denominations when we do. In the mean time, we will continue to enjoy our house and life there.

12th December, 2011

Went to Woking this morning. Pauline is trying another hairdressers. It is a franchise called ‘Headmasters’. I sit in a coffee shop for an hour reading the paper. Once again, the haircut cost about £65.00 but is only ‘acceptable’. It looks like we may be going to Sassoons in Covent Garden next.

We desperately need a microwave. We research it exhaustively and settle on a Whirlpool with microwave, grill and steam functions. About £150.00 from Comet. We went down to get one. They only had it in postbox-red and ribena-purple. We go home and order one from Tesco-Direct to be collected in store tomorrow.

Watched Chelsea beat a disappointing Man. City tonight. High level skill in the game. At least it will have helped United.

13th December, 2011

Went to pick up the microwave. It was an acceptable colour but it had no steam function and the touch panel didn’t work. Apart from that it was perfect.

We took it back immediately and got a refund. We drove past Comet, went in, saw a simple, small microwave for £75.00 and said we’ll have that until we could find a better one. When we came to buy it, they told us they had none in stock but could order one. We chose not to accept that. We looked on the internet for someone who could supply it and a Bolton company, Appliances On-line said they would deliver it on Thursday. We ordered it.

14th December, 2011

At 6.00 am we were up and, by 6.50 am, we were standing in the Woking Walk-in Medical Centre waiting for yet another INR test. My results are all over the place at the moment and I seem to be having a test every seven days. At last the new tumble dryer arrived today. It is a Hotpoint. It is not damaged. It works perfectly. We cannot believe it.

15th December, 2011

I stayed at home all day today while Pauline drove over to pick up her sister, Phyllis, and take her shopping for the morning in Woking. She phoned me at lunchtime to tell me that they were eating bacon sandwiches which was intended to make me feel jealous – and it did. During the early part of the morning, our new microwave was delivered and I unpacked it and set it up in the kitchen. Fortunately, it worked fine although, Pauline pointed out as soon as she got home that it was dented. If you’ve bought a microwave recently, you will know that they are very, very cheap. It is hard to pay more than £150.00. For this, very simple model, I was paying half that and, as long as it works, it’s not going back.

With the Study up and running, I spent the rest of the day getting rid of anything that is unnecessary. It is all going to Age Concern – only chosen because it is easy parking on Byfleet High Street.

16th December, 2011

Going out this morning to buy shelving for the Study. We just need more and more storage space. We’ve got a little man coming round in the first week of January to put up shelves, hang mirrors, etc.. The wireless doorbell we bought for £40.00 about five weeks ago has stopped working. We are going out to get a better one this morning.

Got a lovely email from from Jonathan Kelly this morning. Some of you will remember that he was a boyhood friend of mine who lived in Chestnut Way, Burton Road, Repton. He was in the scouts. He married an American girl called Cathy whose father was teaching at Repton School for a year. Jonathan has been living and working in Boston, Massachusetts for the past forty years. He came over to the UK in the Summer – while I was away – and met up with Dave Beasley & Sue – ex of Well Lane, Repton & Scouts – in the Welsh Farm which has been home since early 1970. I last saw Jonathan around that time. He now looks exactly as his father did in 1965. Dave and Sue look older versions of how I remember them.

17th December, 2011

Apart from to get the paper and to screw a new door bell on, I haven’t been out today. It is actually rather pleasant to have a quiet and settled day. Strangely, once again, there is no live football on Sky Sports on a Saturday. There are three good matches on Sunday afternoon. After I have watched them – 12.30, 2.30, 4.30 – I will have cramp, lethargy and be footballed-out. It’s a good job Mum can’t read this. She was furious about sport on Sundays and, as for Supermarkets, there could be no call for them after a six day week. You can’t get in to our local supermarket on a Sunday. It’s only a Tesco Superstore with car parking for 2000+ and, on Sunday, it’s full! Of course, Mum wasn’t too familiar with people having to go to work during the week. Mind you, a two hour walk in the rain with my wellingtons and the family would almost certainly better for me than six hours in front of the television watching football. So, the football wins.

The big news of the year is:   THIS BLOG HAS A READER!

Received a beautiful Christmas Card from David Pritchard. (Didn’t know he was still alive. How old must he be?) He confessed to reading the Blog. Merry Yuletide, David. Glad to read that you are well and back in the Marathon Stakes. I think I’ll be up for the Bypass soon. I will try and make my life a bit more interesting now I know you are reading the drivel I write.

4th December, 2011

Just an ordinary day. I’ve just looked back to this day last year in my Blog and my first words were exactly the same but followed by “….surrounded by snow”. We had been snowbound in the shoebox for about three or four days and we were feeling trapped. Quite the reverse this year. We drove out in sunshine through clouds of Autumn leaves to get the Sunday papers.

I watched a poor Wolves v Sunderland match and then continued to set up the Study while Pauline unpacked some of the last remaining items and tried to find homes for them.

5th December, 2011

We got the car ready for a trip to France tomorrow. Made sure we had warning triangle and reflective jackets readily available in the back. Made sure the travel bag contained passports, tickets, insurance documents, etc.. Early start tomorrow and we won’t have time to check things then. I made sure all our destinations are pre-programmed in to the Sat. Nav. in advance.

We drive round to see Phyllis & Colin and take them some cut glassware we didn’t need but we thought they would like. We are going to buy a large, flat-screen television for the Study so we offered them our smaller one and they seemed pleased with that.

This evening, I watched quite a good Fulham v Liverpool match which Fulham won. Earlier night because we have to be up and out tomorrow. Ironically, snow is forecast on our old route over the Pennines tonight. We may even wake up to a bit of frost.

6th December, 2011

Our Tunnel crossing is just after 9.00 am UK time. We set the alarm for 5.00 am, leave the house at 6.30 am and the fields around are showing signs of frost. The journey is quiet and enjoyable. We arrive at the tunnel, go through automatic check-in and park up before heading for a coffee shop. By 9.00 am we are driving on to the train and by 10.30 Central European Time, we are on the French motorway en route to our favourite wine store. After buying our wine, the store give us a free ferry crossing voucher for our next trip. By 12.00 pm, we are in the shopping centre Cité Europe shopping in Carrefour.

We bought a bottle of whisky and a bottle of champagne to say thank you to Colin & Phyllis. We bought joints of pork, duck breasts, chicken joints, fresh fish, wonderful cheeses, saucisons, salamis, tins of Confit of Duck, jars of Paté of different sorts and some more red wine – mainly claret.

We went off and had lunch and then drove back to the tunnnel where we caught our train at 3.30 pm. We were back in UK at 3.00 pm and back in Surrey by 4.30 pm.. It is certainly very different from having to do four hours from Northern England and the same back and then taking a couple of days to recover.

7th December, 2011

Another beautiful day. We took presents round to Phyllis & Colin. I’m going to have to take the ‘Richard Chair’ round to Bob’s house. I haven’t got room for it. One of Bob’s sons has Richard as a middle name and, therefore, is entitled to the chair. I offered it two him a couple of years ago at Mum’s funeral and he expressed an interest but hasn’t contacted me since. I checked Bob’s address and was shocked to find he only lived 17 miles away from me. And yet so far apart.

Something miraculous happened this afternoon. Our broken (new) dryer was collected and we were in to hand it over.

Watched a poor United lose to Basel in Basel. We drive through Basel twice a year and it is a nightmare, a horrible place which is constantly ‘under development’ and has been for more than ten years. Those roads must have got to United!

8th December, 2011

Had to be up at 6.00 am today. Out of the house by 6.30 am and at the Woking Walk-in Health Centre by 7.00 am. It was another INR test because it doesn’t seem in check at the moment. I’ve given pints of blood recently and my arm is constantly bruised and plastered.

Back home for breakfast while the rush hour dies down and then off to Weybridge to have my brake pedal unit replaced because the old one developed a squeak. Coffee, biscuits, newspapers for an hour and then off again.

I phoned to check on the timing of delivery of our settees this afternoon. It was a bit depressing to hear that it would be December 21st/22nd before we got them. Still at least that is less than two weeks away.

9th December, 2011

Today, we had to go to the Bank to get our identity and new address certified. We want to move some ISAs and open some new investment accounts on-line. I had scanned in our passports and driver’s licences and printed out these scans to send off to the financial institutions that I had chosen. We were shocked to find that our bank of 40 years, Nat. West had recently decided to only provide such a service for people who are investing in their funds. This is a change and quite disgraceful and I shall be telling them so.

I have stayed glued to news of Cameron’s Euro nonsense. We are going to find ourselves out of Europe very quickly if we are not careful. How the Lib.Dems. can live with themselves, I have no idea.

We went off to Guildford this afternoon. Pauline wanted to go to Lakeland (the shop she has only ever bought from at a distance in the past.) but we got stuck in a multi-storey carpark which was full of Christmas shoppers and decided that claustrophobia dictated a different action. We drove home.

10th December, 2011

We have been in our new home for just two weeks now and in England for two months. We feel we have achieved a lot.

Today,  we went in to Woking early to miss the crowds. We sorted out some new investments with the Halifax Bank and booked Pauline a hair appointment at Headmasters (ironically!).