Kind folk

It is good to have some feedback about this Blog. Encouraging.

Paul writes: "And a very good blog it is too! Congratulations (but I still miss 'Here & There' being read out loud on a Monday morning...)." This being a reference to the fact that as Editor of SCOUTING magazine in the 1970s, I wrote my editorial column largely at home over the weekend and on Monday mornings was bursting to read it to my staff who were agog in anticipation (although some of them were just agog!). Staff meetings took place every Monday at 9am sharp - and anyone who dared to be late would be 'tried' and 'sentenced' forthwith, if not sooner. Hangings were not unusual, generally taking place from a usefully sited beam in the design studio, but there were no deaths.

Tim writes: "Congratulations on the launch of your new Blog. I have enjoyed reading it." Clearly a glutton for punishment, he read two of my books over Christmas!

Arthur, ever the gentleman and kindly with it, wrote: "You improve as the days roll on and must find great joy in adding to your new interest. Photographs are delightful and well taken - splendid."

How kind friends are.

London on a Sunday morning in January

London this Sunday morning was cold but the sun sparkled through the bare trees and onto the freshly planted flower beds with primroses and primula at the top of Cheapside outside St. Paul's Station on the Central Line. And St. Paul's looked glorious with a sun bouncing off the stonework. Inside Sung Eucharist was the opportunity to be quiet - for it is amazing to me that this vast building can be a place of real peace with so many people inside - but it is.

Expiry date

My B & Q Diamond Club tag is attached to my house keys. This morning, whilst invigilating at Oaks Park High School, I happened to spot that the expiry date is December 2050 - by which time I will be one hundred and seventeen. I mentioned this to my colleagues and Senior Invigilator Anne responded that she doubted if they would let me in if I turned up then. I am sure Anne is right, for I will be a difficult old fellow at that age, although some folk may feel that I am that already. And in case you ask, the B & Q Diamond Club is an exclusive gathering of the Over-60s who receive a 10% discount on Wednesdays. It is worth dropping in at B & Q on a Wednesday for you will be able to  feast your eyes on a wide array of walking aids. It is only a matter of time before London Ambulance post a paramedic at the door. The self-check-out is a laugh a minute as my fellow octogenarians fumble to make the machine work, until a kindly member of staff offers to help. And talking about fumbling, one thing that makes me more stressed than I can bear is when an old person climbs aboard a bus and then - and only then - starts looking for their bus pass. Pockets are explored, handbags delved into (and that's just the men), shopping baskets turned inside out - until realisation hits that they have it in their hand all the time!It is little wonder that my darling daughter threatens me with a care home most weeks.

Winter blooms in my front garden

These are the photographs hat appear in the ILFORD RECORDER - in the winter rain.

First snowdrops of 2016

The first snowdrops have burst into flower in my front garden and are featured in today’s ILFORD RECORDER together with a shot of the winter jasmin and winter pansies splashed with raindrops.

Last spring I happened to mention to Pat that I had little luck with snowdrops flowering after the first year. You must buy them “in the green”, Pat told me. And do I went online and discovered that I could buy from a nursery in Somerset. I ordered my “in the green” snowdrops at a cost of £25 and was somewhat dismayed and flummoxed when just one bulb arrived. Fear not, said Pat, for next year you will have two or three blooms and each year they will increase until after a decade you will have a veritable field of snowdrops that will be the envy of the neighbours. Well, Pat was right for this year I have two flowers with a possible third creeping up in the background. I have the spot clearly marked for should I pop my clogs, Heather will dig them up to transfer to her garden. For we cannot allow an investment of £25 to get lost can we? The yellow winter jasmin has been in my front garden for some 25 years or more. One Christmas Una brought a small root from a plant in her garden and it has blossomed every year in the hardest of winters. The winter pansies were purchased on Ilford Hill and sit in two baskets on the fence. And the forecast is for snow next week!

Let's eat grandma!

Today I  have been invigilating maths GCSE mock exams at Oaks Park High School. The sports hall could not contain all the pupils taking the exam so a dozen or so students sat their paper in a classroom. Pam and I were despatched for the first hour to invigilate there. It so happened that the classroom was part of the English Department which meant that I could read the notices on the walls whilst keeping a weather eye open to make sure the students did not fall off their chairs if they were asleep (which one lad appeared to be). The misuse of commas and apostrophes is something that in written publications and posters makes me very stressed and so I was pleased to note that these matters are being taught with some care at Oaks Park. The following two sentences caught my eye – and I trust that you will know where to insert the commas, Cedric, or it is back to school for you, never mind the fact that you are a pensioner!

 

“Let’s eat grandma.”

 

“I like eating my dog and my grandparents.”

 

 

And so it was Christmas!

One of the advantages of a stair lift (and there are many, let me assure you) is that when you have some heavy items to move from downstairs up or from upstairs down, they may be placed in the seat and whisked away with ease. Tis Twelfth Night and I spent a happy hour this morning packing away some of the Christmas decorations in a box which needed to go under the bed till next Christmas. And here is a shot of the box winging its way effortlessly upwards. Magic.

 

The stair lift was installed in summer 2014. For many months Yvonne had crawled up stairs on her hands and knees, refusing to allow me to put a stair lift in for her arthritis made walking up the stairs a problem. When Yvonne came home from hospital after her kidney failure was sorted, her arthritis had gone but I had already had the lift installed!