A Disorderly Retirement
It has struck me before that I might be turning into my mother. I think I could write a whole novel on this subject, or perhaps a trilogy, but I’ll try to be succinct. My mother is admirable in many ways, but she has her faults and I can’t imagine there are many children over…
Last week I was fully immersed. No, I haven’t been baptised. It’s my brain that’s been immersed. First, I went to see Moonage Daydream, the latest documentary about David Bowie, and I’m still reeling from the impact. The music, the images, the chaos, the peace, the noise, the words, the lights, the movement, the calm…
The standard advice given to people who move somewhere new is to throw themselves into local life. You’re supposed to join things, volunteer and generally get involved. I have interpreted this advice quite narrowly and am seeking out all local activities that are food related. I went to three markets last week alone. In addition…
Many British people dream of retiring and living by the sea, some make the practical decision to move closer to family and friends, but not many decide that the home of Vodafone UK would be their ideal destination. It has occurred to me before that we’re not most people. But, in its defence, the town…
Moving house forces you to cast a critical eye over all the stuff you have accumulated throughout your life. How much of it do you need or want? Looking back over our various pandemic lockdowns (which, oddly, seem so long ago now), I seem to have divided my time between walking, doing jigsaw puzzles and…
It’s hard to believe, but it’s three years since I started my blog. I paid a company a modest amount of money to host my website for three years, although I suspected that the web-hosting business was like any other – they give you a great rate at the beginning, then offer you a renewal…
Yesterday I escaped to London. I needed a break from the seemingly endless house search. After a while it becomes compulsive and hours spent staring at a screen are no good for anyone, whatever the reason. I decided that not only did I need a change of scene I also needed a break from my…
Do I really need any more challenges in my life at the moment? Yes, seems to be the answer. One of my long-held ambitions is to improve my French. I studied French at university and was briefly a translator, but that was many years ago and what knowledge I had has receded to the distant…
I think by now I must have accumulated great stores of wisdom and that young people should be gathering around my chair clamouring to hear my piercing insights into life, my shrewd observations about… well, anything and everything. I have noticed, however, that the only gathering going on around my chair is in the form…
Well, it’s actually happening. We’re really leaving the house we’ve lived in for 30 years. So far it’s all felt a bit unreal, but now that we’re talking about moving dates, the reality has sunk in: we don’t know where we’re going. There’s not much on the market at the moment and we haven’t found…