So, Margaret
and I both reached our 65th birthdays this year – me in July and
Margaret on August 24.
It’s true
that birthdays mean less as you get older, but 65 was the official pensionable
age for men and so it has some significance.
I say ‘was’.
Many men will have to wait until they are 66 or 67 to draw state pension, but I
became an OAP on July 18 at 65. Margaret would have drawn her state pension
from 60 had she been born a little earlier, but the government raised the
retirement age for women, so she had to wait an extra four years and three
months to get her money.
It’s very
annoying and has penalised us to the tune of almost £30,000.
The older I
get, the more I am convinced central government is largely incompetent.
Pensions are unaffordable because the money we’ve been taxed to pay our future
pensions hasn’t been invested, it’s been spent, and we depend upon current
taxpayers’ pension contributions to pay pensioners.
That’s fine
if the proportion of workers to pensioners remains high and the post-war baby
boom ensured that it did. The problem now is that the so-called baby-boomers
are retiring and the number of workers is shrinking because we did not have as many
children as our parents. We’re also living longer. Sooner or later, pensions will
be unaffordable, especially because Brexit will reduce the country’s wealth and
the government seems determined to respond to popularist and racist
anti-immigration sentiment by reducing the number of immigrants who were
helping finance pensions.
Well, we’ve
done our bit by having £30K taken from what we might have received.
In actual
fact, we have been getting along quite well on company pensions and savings,
but an extra £18,000 per annum is welcome. How anyone would manage on that
alone is unbelievable.
So hitting
65 was a milestone with some economic benefits, but I don’t really feel much
different than I did when I was 21.
We’ve had a
busy year with house moves, garden and allotment makeovers, grandchildren,
holidays, Probus, dogs and trips.
Holidays
 |
| Huge depth of snow in Les Eucherts |
I had two
skiing trips, a week’s winter sun in Tenerife and a week in Jersey with
Margaret. We’ve not had a weekend away for a UK city break in a while and we should
try to do that in 2019 … perhaps Canterbury.
My first
ski holiday was just Sam and I and we got a cheap late deal in a catered chalet
at Les Eucherts adjacent to La Rosiere. I’d skied at La Rosiere and into Italy
at La Thuile a few years ago when we stayed at St Foy, but it had been a very
snowy day and I couldn’t remember a great deal about the resort.
The chalet
was a bit basic and the chalet host was a laid-back public school type, who
just about got by. The other guests were a group of fire-fighters from
Brighton, a chap with his two teenaged sons and two married couples. We all got
along quite well.
I decided
to get some refresher lessons to learn the resort runs and also to give Sam
some time on his own. I don’t think the skiing is especially challenging for
him and looking after me on my gentle blues would be a bit dull. He paired up pretty
quickly with the firemen and there were endless Go-Pro videos to watch every night.
Their thinking seemed to be: if we didn’t film it, it didn’t happen.
I got a
nice ski instructor and there were just two pupils (me and a Belgian woman) so
it was almost one-to-one. I was too good for that group, so I was moved into
another group next day and that was all right too. I liked the skiing – there were
some long blues and my technique had improved a little. Sam was crashing more
than me.
The snow
had been very heavy and there was a really thick covering. It also snowed on
several days, so visibility was bad and some runs were closed. Frustratingly,
for Sam, the route into Italy was also closed. However, at the end of the week,
they opened it up and we skied across. The journey includes a couple of fairly
steep reds and two really long drag lifts. A lot of the Italian runs were also
closed, so it was a mixed bag and then we had to wait while they finished
pisting the route back. I liked Les Eucherts/La Rosiere and came home
uninjured. The only downside was a long transfer from Lyon airport by coach and
an early start coming out and going back.
I don’t
think I fell over all week, although Sam and I did walk to La Rosiere one night
and I was taken out by two French kids on a speeding sled. It was like being
two-footed tackled by Roy Keene, but I wasn’t hurt. In the end, I felt bad for
the kids, who were crying and getting bollocked by their parents.
We had a
second ski holiday in Arc 1950 with the whole family – me, Margaret, Sam, Lucy
and Arthur. I’ve written about this earlier. It was a really nice break, lots
of snow and good skiing most days (although I’m finding it increasingly tricky
to ski in poor visibility. I just can’t distinguish the topography of the piste,
so I find myself speeding up when I expect to be slowing down. It’s very disconcerting.
I abandoned the last day when it was misty and snowing.
We’re going
back to 1950 in April 2019 when Sam is keen to give Arthur a taste of
skiing. I hope he has his mum and dad’s talent and not his grandfather’s. We’re
taking a package deal and will be flying rather than driving. My old BMW made
its last trip to France in 2018.
 |
| Ice-cream eating competition - Arthur and Margaret. |
Our trip to
Tenerife was a welcome touch of warmth and sun during a pretty chilly winter.
We had a really cold spell in spring which was dubbed “The Beast from the East”.
I didn’t see much of Tenerife outside of the airport, taxi or hotel. There was
everything we needed within the hotel, so I took the opportunity to stay put.
We had plenty of time with Arthur. Mealtimes were sometimes a relay of people
eating, while others kept him amused. Fortunately, there was a soft play area
near the dining area, which he loved, and I also had a regular walk with him in
the morning to see the fish, turtles, bear cave and waterfall. I really enjoyed
our morning walks.
A slightly
pregnant Lucy came across to England during the summer and spent some time with
her mum and with us. It was the first time Arthur had been to Thorney and he
loved the garden and Holly. We took him to soft play at Crowland garden centre (Julia
and Aureliano’s favourite) and also to Duxford. He’s fascinated by aeroplanes,
but the most fun was had with one of those iced lollies in a cardboard tube.
You know the ones – you squeeze the bottom and the lolly pops out of the top.
Arthur squeezed the bottom and when the lolly popped up he thought it was
hilarious. Of course, that made us laugh and Arthur laughed even more. Who
would think there was so much fun in a Calipo? You can judge for yourself at: https://youtu.be/i2DQGsqUDxU. Here's a picture of Arthur and I in front of great-granddad's tank. My dad drove a universal carrier across Europe loaded with heavy machine guns and mortars. It's no Tiger and Arthur wasn't massively impressed.
Our house is busy … briefly
For around
three months at the start of the year, we had Tom, Lucy, Julia and Aureliano
living with us. They are now in Ecuador until September 2019, while Lucy
completes fieldwork for her PhD. Their lease ran out just after Christmas, so
it wasn’t possible to get a short lease to cover the gap. It was really nice to
be able to spend so much time with them. Margaret enjoyed trips to town on the bus
with Julia, my sister took her to Rhyme Time at the library and I was a regular
at the Mums and Toddlers group at the Bedford Hall.
We thought
Aureliano would walk before he left for Ecuador, but he was quite happy
crawling, climbing and standing. It was fair enough that Nidia and Carlos would
get the pleasure of seeing him take his first steps.
We’ve
really missed them this year. I wanted to send them letters and stories, but
the post to Ecuador is so unreliable and four or five letters went missing. We
talk on Skype every few weeks, but it’s not great for toddlers and
three-year-olds. I’m sure Aureliano has forgotten who we are.
 |
| Aureliano in the high paramo near Simiatug. |
Allotment
My allotment has been
quite productive. I grew outdoor tomatoes, early/maincrop potatoes, broad
beans, onions, cannellini beans, cucumber, asparagus, rhubarb, courgettes,
runner beans, raspberries, blackcurrants and chillies.
I also grew sunflowers,
lilies and roses for cutting.
We bought a chest freezer
this year and that has been a real boon for storing our produce. We had far too
many courgettes (what was I thinking putting in eight plants), but there were
some success stories. The tomatoes were great. I grew cherry tomatoes in the
greenhouse at home (sweet aperitif) and outdoor ones at the allotment (Outdoor Girl).
Margaret processed them by roasting and removing the skins and we’ve not had to
buy any tinned tomatoes all year.
The chillies froze once
sliced and we have bags and bags of raspberries. We froze lots of courgettes
and haven’t eaten any yet, also lots of early potatoes. I think they could be
used, but really, they’re best eaten fresh or given away.
In 2017, my maincrop potatoes
were badly attacked by slugs and I was pleased that this year, there was very
little slug damage. It was a very dry year, which reduced slug numbers, but also
meant the potatoes looked like finishing early and small. In the end, we had a
wet spell and they burst into life again. The harvest was pretty good. We gave
some to Max and my sister and we’re still working our way through the bags in
the shed.
In 2019, year, I’ll do
more tomatoes, butternut squash and also try aubergine. I’ve added Sweet William
for cutting.
Max’s
back garden
As well as my own
allotment and garden, I’ve managed to help Max and Sam with garden work. Max’s
new house has a small back garden, which comprised a little patio, grass and
various shrubs which had become rather large.
 |
| New planters and slate chippings in Max's garden |
We removed a tree and a
couple of shrubs, built four raised beds and put down slate chippings across
the old grassed area. We had to do it during the wettest week of the year and
the ground was absolutely saturated. Annoyingly, that was the last real rain
for months and we had the driest, sunniest summer I can remember. Our work
looked pretty good, especially after Max painted the raised beds and they were
planted up.
The only problem was that
he bought a whippet puppy (Ollie) https://youtu.be/mPDoU5iykt4
and then, later in the year, acquired Ollie’s brother Archie. The two whippets
have caused some mayhem by jumping from bed to bed and we’ll have to carefully
think through our planting plans for this year. What plants can you get that
are whippet-proof?
Sam’s
allotment
Sam got himself an
allotment at Grouville in spring. It’s some way from his house, but a lovely
spot overlooking Gorey castle. He’d done some work on it during the early
summer, but with a lively two-year-old and new baby on the way, he was fearful
that he wouldn’t have time to look after it.
One of the problems was
that he couldn’t take Arthur up there without full-time supervision because
there were so many dangerous things lying about. When we went across in August,
he’d pretty much made up his mind to give it up, so I went to have a look at it
with him and said I’d help him get it into shape. He wanted to create some
terraces and raised beds and I said that we could put down sheeting over land
that wasn’t being used to suppress the weeds. Some spray with weedkiller twice
a year would keep it on order.
 |
| Sam's newly tiered, sheeted and barked allotment. |
In autumn, I went over
for a week and we worked on it together. We created two terraces, with steps
down from each, I relayed the flags at the top to even up that area, we put in
three water tanks with a rain-collection system off the shed, built three new
raised beds, three compost bins, fenced the bottom and spread bark chippings
across the whole second tier.
It looked really good and
when we took Arthur along to see out handiwork, he immediately jumped off the
highest point of the top level. Thankfully, the chippings are a soft landing. I
hope they’ll get good use from the plot in 2019.
Cars
and motorcycle
I’ve had a motorcycle
since my mid-life crisis more than 20 years ago, but I seem short of time, don’t
have any riding companions and I’ve felt more and more vulnerable on two
wheels.
 |
| My BMW R1200ST - I hope it will clock up more miles |
2018 also saw the end of
my BMW estate, which I’ve had since 2009. It had almost 250,000 miles on the
clock and I sold it to Andy Bunyan for £500. I said I would drive Tom’s Ford
Mondeo while he was away in Ecuador. It’s not worth a great deal, so he’d have
lost money if he’d sold it and then bought another when he got back. Also, he
had nowhere to store it.
It was suffering from a
number of dents and scratches (he seems to have become very crashy this past
year) so I spent the £500 from the BMW on getting the Mondeo tarted up.
After my last Mondeo and
some terrible after-sales service from Ford, I vowed never to have another. I
had to take Ford off my blacklist to help out my son – there’s a good dad (my
blacklist is very precious to me).
 |
| Ford Mondeo - I didn't think I'd own another of these. |
Out
and about
We’ve been on a few trips
with Probus. Early in the year, I visited St Andrew’s Church, Woodwalton (Margaret
didn’t come for some reason, I can’t remember why). I used to see the church
every day from the train on my way to London. It stands on a small hill and
seems to be miles from anywhere. It used to fascinate me.
It is some distance from
the village and our walking group started from Woodwalton, walked across fields
to the church, where we were shown round by a local volunteer. It’s now managed
by the Friends of Friendless Churches and is kept locked most of the time. It
was a nice walk and great to visit this place which was so familiar to me for
so long through a speeding train window. Margaret, my sister and I visited it
again on New Year’s Day, but were not able to go inside this time.
We had an interesting
visit to Southall Minster and the town workhouse. Now here’s a place, we would
never have visited if not for an organised trip. Southall is in
Nottinghamshire and I’d heard of it because there’s a racecourse there. It is a
really historic place with a magnificent minster church. We had a guided tour, so
found out lots of things that we wouldn’t have known just by wandering around.
The stone carvings were amazing, so detailed and intricate, with detail that
wouldn’t be seen unless you looked at them from certain angles.
The workhouse is
perfectly preserved and owned by the National Trust. It was an interesting
trip, but pretty depressing stuff. I’m sure it did its job and did help a lot
of people – but it could have done so in a much more Christian way (perhaps
Christian with a small C).
 |
| Intricate carvings in Southall Minster. Pigs eating acorns under oak leaves. |
Our other notable trip
was to the Crown Derby pottery factory in Derby and to Kedleston Hall, just
outside Derby.
The pottery factory was
small, but busy and we had good access to all the various processes. Lord knows
how they’re doing in the midst of the Brexit mess this government has created. Margaret
and I had enjoyed watching a BBC series called The Great Pottery Throwdown,
where craft potters compete to win a prize, so it was interesting to see the techniques
we’d learned about in that programme in a commercial setting.
They had moulds and a
machine to stamp out plates of a consistent size, but the raw clay plate seemed
huge. Once it’s dried and then fired, it shrinks by a huge amount (to normal
plate size). That’s true of everything they make, so things with lids, like
teapots or jars, have to be made oversize to the right proportions, so that
they shrink in proportion and fit perfectly after firing.
A lot of decoration is
added using transfers, which is skilled, but not as skilled as the
hand-painting which is used only for the very special, commissioned pieces.
 |
| Lady Curzon in the Peacock dress |
Kedleston Hall was owned
by the Curzon family and the most interesting member was George Curzon, who was
Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905. He was a dyed in the wool imperialist but
one good thing he did for India was to save the Taj Mahal which was falling
into disrepair. It’s now one of India’s main tourist attractions, so thanks for
that George.
He also did his fair
share of shooting tigers and riding around on elephants. Like many British
aristocrats, he bagged himself a rich American wife (Mary Letter). In India,
they were something of a golden couple – the Posh and Becks of their day – and the
crowning glory was Mary’s appearance in the Peacock Dress for the 1903 Delhi Durbar
to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII.
The dress is now in the
hall (and owned by the National Trust) and there’s also a painting of Mary wearing
it. The dress is described thus by Wikipedia: “The gown was assembled from
panels of chiffon that had been embroidered and embellished by Delhi and Agra craftsmen
using the zardozi (gold wire weaving) method. It was then shipped to
Paris, where the House of Worth styled the dress with a long train
edged with white chiffon roses. The worked panels were overlapping peacock
feathers that had a blue/green beetle wing at the center. Over time,
the metal thread in the dress has tarnished but the beetle wings have not lost
their luster.”
 |
| Votes for women? Never, said Lord Curzon. |
Sadly, Mary died quite
young (36) only a year after their return from India. George had a high-level
political career, but seems not to have been a good politician, managing to
upset as many people as he charmed. His final big campaign was to lead the
campaign against women’s suffrage and there’s one of his campaign leaflets in
the hall, which makes interesting reading. If he was alive today, he’d have
been a rabid Brexiteer, a leading light in the European Research Group.
Books
One of
my new year resolutions was to read more books. I managed just two, although I
did get through quite a few Spanish text books. Those I read were:
Feral
by Geoge Monbiot.
This
is a book about our landscape and environment. It challenges many of the
commonly accepted ways that land (and sea) is managed. For example, Monbiot
doesn't believe that sheep grazing of the English and Welsh uplands produces a
beautiful and sustainable landscape. He presents a very convincing case for reforestation
of our uplands and for re-introducing a number of species which once lived
there, but were driven to extinction by the activities of man. It's a
challenging read and makes you question everything from the system of farm
subsidies, why we allow vast tracts of Scotland to be owned by absentee
landlords to why we allow unsustainable fishing. The book destroys any faith
you might still have in the competency of politicians (especially Welsh ones)
and I ended up shaking my fist at the TV during a BBC Countryfile story on
sheep and hard-working hill farmers. I now view sheep as evil tree destroyers –
a grey plague on our landscape.
To See
Every Bird on Earth by Dan Koeppel
Do you
know how many types of bird there are on earth? It's probably around 15,000, but
keeps growing and shrinking as species are split into sub species and sub
species are lumped together into single species. Whatever – it's a lot of
birds. Dan Koeppel's book is about his father, his father's life and his
relationship with him; it just happens that Koeppel (senior) is a keen birdwatcher.
In fact, he's a particular kind of birdwatcher – a lister – someone who sets
out to see as many different birds as they can. There are a very small number
of people who have seen more than 7,000 birds and, when the book was written,
the record stood at just over 8,000. It's a really interesting book and has
prompted me to list all the different birds I have seen. It’s only around 100.
Theatre
I didn’t go to the cinema
once during 2018. It’s hard to get Margaret out in the evenings and last time
we went to the cinema, she fell asleep. We did see a number of things at the
theatre, however:
Andrew
Rieu in Maastrich at Stamford Arts Centre. This was a live link to his early
evening performance and it is the second year running that my sister has bought
me this for my birthday. In 2017, we went to the Lux at Wisbech and I enjoyed
that more because you say on a huge settee and could drink wine during the
performance. It was good though and we had pizza and wine before the show.
Carmen
the Gypsy. We saw this at the Key. It should have been in the main hall, but so
few tickets were sold that it was relegated to the studio. This meant we were
right in the faces of the actors and it was an incredible performance, probably
the most intense experience I’ve had in a theatre. The cast were brilliant and
it was a real privilege to see such good acting at such close quarters.
Tangomotion
was another Key Theatre excursion. It was an evening of dance with a band and
two couples. The band leader gave some insights into the tango and explained
the different types of dance. It was very enjoyable and I also learned what a
bandoneon (previously seen in Spanish poetry) was. It’s a type of accordion and
makes that particular tango wail.
Adam
Kaye, This is Going to Hurt (back in the Key). I thought this would be a jolly
comedy and it was funny, but the ending of the show was a real stunner. His
book is in the top 10 paperback non-fiction and it deserves to be.
McGuinness and Whitham. We saw Foggy and
Whitham at the Cresset a few years back and this was in a similar mode. The key
was busier than I’ve seen it for anything other than burlesque. It was a good
night and we won a copy of John McGuinness’ autobiography in the raffle. Maybe
that will be one of my books to read in 2019.
Albion Christmas Band. This was our
Christmas present to my sister. We saw them at Stamford Arts Centre a couple of
years ago, but they were much better at The Key and we had a fantastic view
from the second row. Really enjoyed it.
I have
this idea in my head that it’s important to keep having new experiences and
trying new things to keep my brain sparking. It gets harder each year to find
new experiences. Here’s some from 2018 …
Went
to Tenerife. I’ve
been to the Canary Islands before (to Fuerteventura) but this was my first time
on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands. The Canaries are volcanic,
rising from the floor of the Atlantic and there are still active volcanoes,
including the 12,000ft high Mt Teide on Tenerife.
We
stayed at Adeje in a five-star hotel and barely left the hotel during the
entire fortnight. We’d gone with Sam, Lucy and Arthur, so it was a chance for
us to spend some family time together. We’re going back in 2019, so it must
have been a hit!
Drove
a hybrid car. Global
warming is the biggest threat to humanity in the next 100 years. What are we
doing to reduce emissions of CO2? Nothing much – emissions are
increasing as the world population rises and China and India industrialise. We
have signed up to various commitments and the UK will reduce carbon emissions.
Cars like the Hyundai Ioniq (70mpg) help a little I guess. I hired the car to
pick up Bert and Irene (near neighbours) from Kent where they were dropped
after a holiday. Bert recently had to give up driving after some memory issues.
Went
to Southwell Minster, Crown Derby, Kedleston Hall and Woodwalton Church (see
above).
I
became a Member of a MAT (Multi Academy Trust) so I find myself working with
officials of the diocese of Peterborough and various vicars – it’s a MAT
sponsored in part by the Peterborough diocese. I’m not sure if it will ever
fly. In true church tradition, we just get something agreed and everyone falls
out. We started the year with six schools and ended with two. If we can’t find
at least one more, we’ll get the chop by the DfE.
I
became secretary of Peterborough Probus 02 (a club for retired businessmen and
professionals). An extra job was the last thing I needed, but it’s not too much
work and when I unload some jobs, this will probably be one I keep.
 |
| Max with Ollie the whippet puppy. |
Max
got a whippet puppy (quite a handful) and then adopted its brother as well. One
whippet is a handful, two are a double handful. It’s my first experience of the
dog and they are sooooo fast. They’ll get across a field in a few strides, they
seem to fly across the ground. They make Holly look rather old and slow (which
she is, in comparison).
Here’s
one thing I never expected to do – I played Warhammer. This is Max’s new hobby
and, like all of his hobbies, his enthusiasm is overwhelming. He has hordes of
alien armies sitting in his garage and I’ve teased him a little about it.
Anyway, he brought his kit over one weekend, so I could have a go. I did enjoy
it, mainly because it was a chance to spend some time with Max. He has got very
good at painting tiny models.
