Category: Uncategorized

  • So here’s a first. I am blogging from inside the Arctic Circle! It’s now 7 days into a voyage up and down the Norwegian Coast and round the North Cape. I know it’s traditional when age sets in to start going on cruises. But to be honest I have never fancied being cooped up with…

  • What is it about our country that we tolerate litter and rubbish everywhere? I walk my dog each day up the small road we live on, and the verges and hedgerows are full of litter, most of it having been thrown from passing vehicles. The nerd that I now am in old age has carried…

  • Like most of us I suspect I embraced the age of the digital camera and the convenience it brought to photography. I remember the days of the old film cameras. The ritual of taking the film out after a holiday, posting it off to a processing laboratory and then waiting with trepidation to see which…

  • So here we are at 2026. To quote John Major when he became Prime Minister – “Who would have thought it!”. This year marks two milestones in my journey through old age. In the Summer when I reach 78 I will be the longest living person on the paternal side of my family. The maternal…

  • So here we are again – Christmas Eve! Am I excited- well not really. I must confess that for a long time I have had mixed feelings about Christmas. It probably started when I qualified in Medicine and had to endure the false jollity of Christmas on the Ward. On the surface the public reckoned…

  • It’s been very windy up north. Yesterday, however, I received advice which was life changing. The RAC no less published advice that when I am driving when it is windy, I should slow down and hold firmly on to the steering wheel. Well who would have thought it! I don’t know if it is a…

  • One of the questions you get asked after retirement is “What do you do all day?” Its an interesting one and if I stop to think about it I do indeed ask myself what do I do? There’s all sorts of expectations about if you read the literature on retirement, much of it engendering a…

  • Christmas is approaching with amazing speed. This year I have decided to stop my annual donation to the Royal Mail and am not doing Christmas Cards. Instead I have made a donation to our local Hospice at Home service. However the appearance of cards in the shops reminds me of the time I spent working…

  • Here is a message for my local authority battling with flooding today. For thousands of years there has been a season called Autumn. During Autumn leaves fall off the trees .In the midst of this leaf drop and towards the end of October we get heavy rain. The leaves have now blocked the drains and…

  • I’ve been spending a week away in a cottage in North Yorkshire. It’s very relaxing with lots of time to read and muse on life. There’s a good local brewery nearby which also helps! For some reason I have had lots of thoughts about childhood and in particular the local characters that were about. I…