Northern Summer & Southern Winter. More memories to avoid amnesia..

Winters and Summers

Summer is here for you all in the northern hemisphere and winter with rain is here with us. I hope you all had time to go off for break and holiday. Hopefully a good break will help a bit of relaxation and distraction as well as conjure up some memories for later. We had several good and very memorable trips to Italy, cycling from Rimini to Florence and back, pedalling around the lakes from Verona and then going to the opera and walking in the Dolomites, as well as a great pedal in Sicily where Ali got locked in the toilet in café Ciclista Bar. Seemed appropriate considering we were on a 7 day bike ride. We were in Palermo on New Year's Eve and were going to go out at midnight to see what was going on but the guy at reception told us not to "Pericoloso". Considering he'd been there a few times before, we figured he knew what he was talking about, so we didn't, and were very glad we didn't. We went back to our room and watched from the balcony. As midnight arrived the cacophony of noise got louder and louder, with firecrackers being thrown off balconies onto passing cars and people below. The next day we peddled on and stopped in a village for lunch, because everywhere was closed we got out our stove and had a snack and a brew in a bus shelter. An old codger in a second-floor apartment saw us, called us over and lowered a basket down, on a piece of rope, therein were satsumas, bread, cheese and wine!!!

Meanwhile over here a few sunny days are interspersed with total cloud, rain and more rain. If that wasn’t enough, there was a bit more. But it is still sort of nice, at least it isn’t too cold (yet) and it continues to be blissfully peaceful.

As we all grow older so do parents with their (and our) associated frailties. Ali has just come back from seeing her Mum, who is generally doing ok, but is of course frailer and weaker. She does well to live by herself. Having Ali and her sister, Ali's wonderful aunt Bryanne there of course helped and was a motivator for Mum to 'get up and go', sadly after a phone call this morning, I fear things are back to normal now that she is 'home alone'. As we know, doing things with others is so much easier and fun, so she gets top marks for all she does. We're all similar; self motivation can be difficult. But she had a good time which is the most important thing.

Over the last few months of my dad’s life, when I visited him I talked to him about his life and memorable experiences. Those stories are now gone forever with him, but I’m delighted to have heard about his first journey by plane to Tanganyika for his work which took days rather than hours and entailed several stops enroute; when he dodged a doodlebug; and his amazing cycling trips up and down UK (Reading to Nottingham) on what we would now consider to be a very cronky bike, it was about 75 years ago, to mention only 3 of many. Do it folks; you’ll never regret it.

Motivation is so much easier when there is someone else around to cajole you along. We have to keep a bit active here, simply looking after the place whether it is 10kms back and forth, walking, cutting the grass, digging the plot for next year's vegetables, giving the sheeps, one by one some sheep nuts (thankfully we only have 5 sheeps, I don’t know what we’d do if we had 5000) and the rest. Two years ago, I used to do ParkRun in Cov and in the last year steadying out at about 24 minutes, so I thought I'd see how I was going and went and did 2 here recently. I was satisfied enough with 26 and half minutes. But getting up at 06.30 to then drive 42 minutes for an 8.00am start did test my self-motivation. I see that the Coventry ParkRun now gets about 630 people per week. To think that 182 ParkRuns ago, when I first started there were about 50 of us and I’d usually be in the top 15 around 22 ½ minutes!! It is such a good concept.

2013 - Coventry 2023 - Greytown

A nice bit of distraction therapy for me is watching films, the best one I've seen recently is the 'Bank of Dave'. I recommend it. If I was still a radiographer, I would have voted to strike along with the others. If for no other reason radiographers need to be rewarded and acknowledged for the incredibly hard, very stressful and anxiety ridden work they put in during covid, going a long way beyond the call of duty whilst other bast***ds partied hard and both wasted money and lined the pockets of their mates. Radiographers have worked incredibly hard since then to catch up from that period. They need more than a patronising clap. It was a truly distressing time. I honestly believe the country has all the money it needs, the problem is that it chooses not to spend it on certain things, however, there is always plenty of cash for what they want it for, usually vanity projects or their mates in dodgy deals. Today’s rant over. Oh, there’s a bit more. The thing about the mini sub getting lost is very sad, but there is a perverse irony that it got lost going to look at the Titanic! We won't even mention the 100s in the Med, who don't get a mention but drowned fleeing persecution, rape and torture.

I had an interesting diet whilst Ali was away. Our cupboards are so well stocked that we could stock a supermarket in a remote village in Ethiopia, so I said to Ali that I wasn't going to spend any money on food whilst she was away. Potatoes, pumpkin, leeks, beetroot, carrots and celery. in various guises and disguises. A friend once said he'd be a very wealthy man if it wasn't for his wife Liz. Maybe Ali is a very wealthy woman because of her husband, even if I do want to go to Sydney to watch a game of football. I've got my banner. If you watch any of the World Cup from Welly, or the Final look out for the Wigan banner!

I'm going to boil another potato, grate a carrot, chop up some celery and heat up half a beetroot. I may treat myself to a leek.

This afternoon I went for a walk with the sheeps around the woods. Halfway around they got bored of my company and went off on their own. Miserable sods. I'm a social cripple even with sheep!! Then about an hour later I heard them calling out, 'we're here'!, 'why didn't you wait for us'. All I could say was that they went off piste and anyway I had a dead possum and rat to dispose of. Some more blood and bone meal for the garden and trees. I'm not sure blood and bone works for a vegetarian but at least it'll keep the carnivores happy that visit us, possum infused pumpkin.

We are 1 duck down: She's dead. I was a bit relaxed about it, sometimes they disappear for 2 -3 days, and they go for a walk to a little lake about 500 metres away, which to short duck legs is equivalent to about 500 kms away for you. When they've had their holiday and swim they come back. It never happened. We've now got 2 more alpacas. Someone asked Ali if we wanted their 2. Of course, she said 'yes'; don't ask me why, but they are very graceful. They move around together like synchronised swimmers!! STOP PRESS. The other day I went on a duck hunt. It wasn't over by the lake, so I started off on my way to another of their favourite holiday haunts. On the way I chanced across 2 piles of feathers, and not much further on a meatless duck skeleton. Ducking 'ell. I have no idea what may have had Jemima for breakfast - a feral cat, a hawk, a stoat. I was a bit sad and fed up. The other one is now quite lonely, and I didn't see her yesterday, so I was worried she'd died of a broken heart!! But have now seen her. Phew. Carnage continues.

We’ve done the annual olive harvest, harvesting 140 litres worth of Olives; 1735k

I was a bit saddened to see more carnage; I think the rustlers had stolen 3 of the cattle and degutted them then and there, once they’d got their meat they simple left 3 piles of guts, stomach and bowel.

There we have it folks, as you head through summer we head through winter. I still go down to the tennis courts and knock a ball back and forth with a few other lovely, lovely fun people. I enjoy it so much. Sometimes I wish I had started playing tennis more than 6 years ago but in it’s place I climbed some good routes, along with the longest route in Scotland, South face Cir Mhor, paddled some exciting rivers, pedalled some great rides and watched Wigan do remarkable things along with some very memorable travels with my very best Pal Al!

Straight up the front and a night’s kip on a ledge half way up. Georgia.

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Match report from last week Wimbledon-esque game.

After a tussle with a Doc Marten Number 1 seed, Lynette Limper from the independent state of Pirinoa was taking an extended 'medical time-out' but eventually time was called and. The Committee met and decided that because he was the only one available The Codge would be an unworthy replacement. Unworthy on 3 essential accounts - he's at least 3 decades older, he isn't anywhere near as good looking so simply doesn't have the crowd pulling capacity and nothing will be said 'on the record' about his tennis in comparison to Ms Limper.

What we learnt last week was that, whilst it was a stunningly gorgeous day the courts have been positioned to give maximum sun glare to the Royal Box end, who see nothing . It was noticed early on that generally Codge's returns were much more effective when he had completely lost the ball in the sun. For him to see what he was doing didn't seem to help. The sun obliged again today.

After last week's courtside battle with the women, this week the Codge decided to go without trousers for fear of having them unceremoniously ripped off him, again. SO tiresome. Instead, remembering who he was standing in for he arrived court side in a short skirt. The obvious give away were the legs but other than that, some were confused.

Again, in time honoured fashion, what is euphemistically called 'the racquet spin' took place. One half spin and serve was decided and ends swapped. All very fair and random. What we learnt last week was that some of us were much more successful when the ball was lost to the sun. Fortunately the sun came up and we could see nothing. There were some spectacular Wimbledon-esque shots, none by chance.

As the sun came up the heat went up. The morning started cold and the layer principle was employed in the dressing room. As the temperature rose, layer by layer The Sisterhood stripped off. How hot was it going to get?!

As for tennis. A simple combination of freezing early morning conditions, bright sun and rising temperatures had the same effect as drinking a cocktail of tropical mangoes, frost damaged grapes and limoncello. Delight, surprise, disappointment and utter frustration. Despite that, by the end of it we were all enjoying ourselves so much we went back for more. In fact it was only the friendly lure of the dentist that brought things to a close. When you are anticipating the enjoyment of the dentist so much it is a shame to have to give up so much pleasure. On the day none of us really knew which was preferable.

The score slid down the scoreboard with uncharacteristic speed. Power Pip (PP) was sending in blindingly good power-packed net skimming torpedo-like returns.

AKA the Motivator, PP randomly, suddenly and wisely said "It ain't over till the fat lady sings", clearly her optimism was causing either delirium or she was seeing the whole thing differently from the rest of us, but didn't want anyone to presume the outcome whilst the game was still in progress. She was wisely cautioning against assuming that the current state of affairs was irreversible. (Editors FACTUAL note: BTW, did you know: The phrase is most commonly used in association with organized competitions, particularly sports).

PowerP was of course profound when she called out "It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings", except it felt as if it was, and she was singing loud and clear!

At the end of the game the score was removed with haste and the bill to pay was the most painful part of the visit to the dentist. Actual pain comes next visit! Fancy having to pay a lot to be told you have to pay a lot more!!

Disclaimer.

All characters are purely fictitious and any resemblance to actual people is a mere coincidence. All accounts of the events are based as closely as possible to reality. Almost all of it actually did happen.

COMMISERATIONS. We all send our heartfelt sympathies to Ms Limper who is still fighting through the frustration of her injury. We hope it improves soon. (and Codge can stop wearing a skirt - in his dreams)!!

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On a very good FB group (yes, there is one) someone asked "if you could be 21 again what advice would you give your child / grandchild"? The best response so far is "surround yourself with positive people and dump the negative numpties that fill you with doubt". I wish I'd read that a few years ago, and deffo 5 years ago (but sometimes 'needs must') and it is a bit simplistic. But now you know why I send this to you. Thanks friends.