Sucked into the murky world of free hot beverages ...

I'm one swirl away from a free coffee.

If there's one thing I've learned since I retired it's that old people love a hot beverage; and if it's accompanied by cake, so much the better.

Actually, that's true of the entire population, including my wife, who makes a great show of not wanting cake but then sulks because you won't give her any of yours.

The difference with old people is that they prefer not to pay for their coffee - nothing tastes better than a free latte.

The scandal is that many supermarkets and other stores have been exploiting this addiction by offering various deals to tempt the pensioners. Garden centres are also shameless pushers of caffeine to the over-60s

My sister, who has a wide knowledge of where to get a free cuppa, tried to get two free coffees from Waitrose in one day, but was foiled by their high-tech computerised anti-fraud system, which is specifically designed to catch coffee-addicted pensioners trying to sneak an additional fix in any 24-hour period. Her free coffee was snatched from her grasp and now she has to don sunglasses and a headscarf to avoid being recognised.

You wouldn’t catch my friend Tony falling foul of such a basic mistake. He has a wallet full of cards and vouchers and never pays for a cup of coffee anywhere.

At Waitrose, he can get a free coffee, free newspaper and free parking every day just by spending £1 on essential groceries (which he would have bought anyway). Once a month, he dines at Patisserie Valerie on their finest pastries, breakfasts at B&Q and sups at Sainsbury’s.

I have also been sucked into this world of caffeine rewards. Tony is onto the best deals anywhere and I thought I’d found one that he didn’t know about when I happened into B&Q and (as an over-60) was offered a Diamond Discount card giving me 10 per cent off all goods every Wednesday.

I mentioned this to Tony thinking he’d be impressed, but he knew all about it already and explained he had since abandoned B&Q for a better offer elsewhere. He did have in his wallet a B&Q loyalty card with three stamps and explained he was on first-name terms with the Polish girl who worked in the cafe. Three more stamps and I would be entitled to a free coffee.

On Wednesday, Margaret and I went in to get some household items (with 10 per cent discount) and I got two more stamps on the card. B&Q has switched from stars to swirls (apparently dishonest pensioners were forging stars so a more complicated pattern had to be adopted). I’m now one swirl away from my first free coffee.

My grandson makes a surprise early arrival

Well, this has been quite a day for grandchildren! I had volunteered to look after Julia today because Margaret has had a bad cold and cough. Margaret has been doing one or two days a week helping with Julia to allow Lucia some study time to get her dissertation written.

White I was driving down to Baldock, the phone beeped a few times. I thought it might be Tom or Lucia sending me a message, so when I was stopped in the queue for the Sandy roundabout, I took a quick peep.

It was a message from Sam to say that Lucy had given birth just half an hour earlier. We knew she was having a boy, so no surprise there, but it wasn’t a message I expected to see. I have to say that on a grey Monday morning, it made me swell with happiness.

Lucy only gave up work on Friday and the due date was still a couple of weeks away, so my new grandson wasn’t hanging around. He weighed in at 7lbs 5ozs (they still use imperial weights for babies). I think he’s going to be called Arthur.

First picture of Arthur - possibly not his best side.

I didn’t have long to muse on this new member of the family. Julia was waiting for me (in Tom’s arms) and gave me a nice smile. Sometimes, she doesn’t want to come to me if Margaret or her mother is available, but she was happy enough this morning (phew). Lucia put her to bed before leaving for the library (where she works on her dissertation) and she slept for only about 20 minutes.

Julia makes a grab for my phone - that will
teach me to try a selfie.

We had a nice play during the morning. She’s very happy provided she has your attention and she spent a long time on her alpaca mat sorting out bricks and dolls from her basket. We’d gone upstairs for a change of scenery on the jungle play mat when mum arrived home. Thankfully, she was met by a happy baby, so Eric got a team point. I even managed to change a nappy (with a little help from Lucia at a critical point).

After lunch (Julia is doing baby-led weaning) Julia was put to bed for another snooze, but she stayed asleep for an hour and a half. In fact, she was still asleep when Lucia came home, so grandfather had a pretty easy time of it! Maybe I tired her out during the morning or perhaps she couldn’t take any more of my singing.

I’m baby-sitting again on Wednesday – and I’m rather looking forward to it. Not sure I’ll get such an easy ride next time ...

The negatives will decide if I'm in or out

There has been nothing on the news this week except the story of David Cameron's negotiations to try to achieve a better arrangement for Britain within the European movement.

It was part of the Conservatives election manifesto that they would renegotiate the terms of our membership and then put the issue before the people in an in/out referendum, which will be held in June.

The Britain-out campaigns (several of them) have been running for ages and making lots of noise, well before David Cameron's negotiations started, let alone concluded.

The referendum is being described as the most important decision we will make in our lifetime (a bit hyped), but currently I have no idea how I should vote. My inclination is to be part of Europe and, to me, a single European currency and a united states of Europe make a lot of sense. On the other hand, there’s a fug and a fog about the whole EU operation, which seems to create bureaucracy and inefficiency and waste millions of Pounds (or Euros). I like the principle, but I have some issues with the implementation.

What I really need now is some clear arguments and debate about why we should stay in or why we should leave, but there’s no sign of that happening. The In and the Out campaigns are focused on scaremongering and pandering to prejudice, neither has presented a coherent argument.

I think the main reasons people dislike the EU are xenophobia and immigration.

Lots of people dislike foreigners in principle; it's a position that's less widespread than it was, but it's still a position that many hold. In this case, it can’t be called racism (although some are also racist) because these particular foreigners they hate/dislike/mistrust are the same race as they are, even the same root religion and culture.

Bloody French (always on strike), bloody Germans (want to rule the world), bloody Greeks (bone idle) ... the list goes on. Nothing David Cameron could negotiate would persuade people like that to embrace the EU.

Then there are those who fear immigration (or the free movement of people - one of the key principles of the EU). There are two million EU nationals working in Britain and many people feel that their wages have been eroded by migrant workers or their jobs taken.

I have to say, I share some of these views - I think the Greeks should work a bit harder and I have been known to mutter “bloody French” when I’ve arrived at Calais to find no ferries and a line of fishing boats blockading the port. I’ve also been known (more often) to think similar things about British people. But I do think that free movement is a fantastic idea and there are millions of British people living and working in Europe.

So as an “undecided leaning in” how am I going to decide how to cast my vote?

I have decided to decide by keeping a list of those arguing for out and those arguing for in. Anyone on the list I dislike will get one minus point and anyone I find truly obnoxious will get five minus points.

So the Britain-out campaign gets an immediate -10 thanks to George Galloway and Nigel Farage; while Gordon Brown, Alex Salmond and Tony Blair add up to -7 for the Britain-in lot. It’s a pretty negative way to make up my mind, but entirely in keeping with the negative campaigns being run by the opposing groups.

Alex Salmond - he's in, so I'm out

Nigel Farage - he's out, so I'm in.

Thrushes burst into song

It has been a fairly mild winter so far, we've had only half a dozen nights of mild frost and a dusting of light snow overnight at the beginning of this week.

The birds have started singing heartily each morning and, for the past week, there has been a new voice in the morning choir. I thought it was a songthrush and I spotted one in the garden, which confirmed my theory.

On Sunday morning, Max (who was over for the weekend with Inna) and I stood on the back and we spotted two thrushes singing loudly to each other (or to some unseen female thrushes). They were sitting at the tops of trees in our garden and the bungalow called Gayport on the Causeway.

Max is quite good at recognising birdsong and he says songthrushes are easy to identify by their complex and beautiful song, which is characterised by repeated phrases. Normally the bird repeats each phrase three times (sometimes two) and then goes on to the next. It's really obvious when it's pointed out.

I also know how to tell a collared dove from a woodpigeon by its call. Collared doves coo in three syllables (U-ni-ted like a football fan), while woodpigeons split their coos into five - who, who, who - who, who.

I have started doing the British Trust for Ornithology's garden birdwatch. Unlike the RSPB's survey, which is once a year, the BTO does it weekly and you record all the birds you see (with their maximum number at any one time) across a week.

Jays are now regular visitors to the garden. They are here most days - sometimes one, sometimes two - and they are beautiful birds. I've also got half a dozen jackdaws who arrive most mornings to raid the peanuts. This week, I also caught a glimpse of the sparrowhawk in the garden again. I think he'd pounced on something on the lawn. I don't know if he caught it, I saw him making his getaway, but not whether he had some poor blue tit in his talons.

One of the best things this year has been watching the birds in the bird-bath. I got this for Christmas and placed it along the big border, so it could be seen from both the kitchen window and the lounge. It's amazed me how much it is used and with such gusto.

There were five sparrows splashing in it one day, another day there was a mass of spray coming from a tiny blue tit and this morning a big fat female blackbird was in their doing her ablutions. I have to top it up every morning and on the few frosty mornings have made sure I thaw the ice with some warm water.

Dramatic end to my birdwatching session

Every year, I try to do the RSPB’s Great Garden Birdwatch and most years it provides a few surprises.

I was delighted when the Greater Spotted Woodpecker became a regular visitor to the garden to feed on peanuts and pleased to have him included in the survey some years back.

This year, two Jays have been regular (almost daily visitors) to the nut feeder, along with a couple of enterprising Jackdaws. They use similar tactics: they land in the tree, lunge at the feeder and hang on like grim death, bashing it with their beaks. Sometimes they extract a nut; other times, nuts fall onto the ground and they hop down to scoop those up. Often, they work as a pair, with one on the feeder and one on the ground.

I was hoping the Jays and Jackdaws would feature in my 2016 survey, but neither showed up. They are early birds and may have been and gone before I started the survey for an hour between 9am and 10am.

Something unexpected usually turns up. One year, we had a Tree Creeper (not seen him since) and another year, there was a flock of about 15 Long-Tailed Tits that arrived.

This year, things got off to a very slow start (I thought nothing was going to turn up). Then there was a Robin (which spent the whole hour foraging around the garden), a Wren and a couple of Blackbirds. The Blue Tits turned up in force after about 15 minutes, having realised the seed feeder had been replenished.

I spotted five House Sparrows sitting on the hedge near the acer. They were foraging in the hedge and sitting on the top sunbathing in between forays into the depths of the twigs. House Sparrows have been in decline in the UK, but they are still fairly common near us and always feature in my survey. Max bought me a sparrow box for Christmas, which I need to fit soon, and hopefully that will encourage a few more to take up residence.

Best part of the hour’s observation was spotting seven Greenfinches. I was pleased to see these because numbers have fallen this year. It is thought they have suffered from a disease and I haven’t seen as many around as before. This morning a flock of them arrived about 9.30am and kicked the assorted tits off the seed feeder. They dominated the feeder for 10 minutes. There were always four on the feeder and others flying from the corkscrew hazel to try to get their turn. It was quite a lively time and although I positively counted seven of them, I’m sure there were more. I never really think of them as aggressive birds, but nothing else was allowed on the feeder while they were there and they were scrapping with each other very vigorously. Normally, birds seem to get along quite politely on the feeder, a bird will fly onto a perch, grab a seed and be away, making space for the next one on line. These Greenfinches were a rough crowd, they took all four perches on the feeder and were keen to sit there for seconds or thirds. Other Greenfinches would try to usurp them and when a bird flies at a perched bird, the sitting one will normally move out of the way. These were not moving and the feeder was a buzz with flapping, scrapping finches. Those waiting to grab a place or forced off were hopping around the hazel very excitedly. You could imagine them saying: “How rude, I was on that perch and he just came and shoved me off. I could have lost a feather, he was so rough. Well, I’m not having that, I’m going back and give him some of his own medicine...”

There is normally a surprise during the session and all the Greenfinch scrapping maybe caught the eye of this fellow because my observation came to a dramatic ending at 9.50am when a Sparrowhawk appeared across my sister's garden and landed in the hazel.

Everything disappeared in a flash. The hawk sat there for a few seconds wondering where everything had gone and then flew away, just before I could get the binoculars on him for a good look. 

He certainly spoiled the party and the garden was bare for five minutes before the blackbirds and robin re-appeared and resumed their groundwork.

Birds (and numbers) seen this year were:

Greenfinch 7

Great tit 6

Blue tit 5

Chaffinch 5

Sparrow 5

Blackbird 3

Dunnock 3

Robin 1

Wren 1

Wood pigeon 1

Goldfinch 1

Sparrowhawk 1

More things I've done for the first time

Christmas 2015 selfie with Julia

This is a list of things that I've done for the first time during 2015.

1. I became a grandfather

Can't claim much credit for this one. Tom announced that Lucia was pregnant just after Christmas, although some of the more observant members of the family noticed that she hadn't been drinking. Julia, our granddaughter, was born on June 26 and she has been a source of great pleasure. the biggest difference between being a parent and a grandparent is that you notice the changes in a child much more. Because you're not there with them all the time, each time you see them, there's something new, which is wonderful.

2. I skied across a national border and did a half pipe

Neither of them were a great success, I have to say. On our ski holiday to St Foy, we had a day at La Rosiere, where you can ski down into Italy from the top of the resort. It wasn't entirely successful because a lot of routes were closed due to bad weather. I did get into Italy, but we were worried about getting back due to lifts closing. The half-pipe thing (Sam's idea, of course) happened in La Plagne on another day excursion. I was doing all right for a while, but ended up crashing on my head and seeing stars for half an hour.

3. I walked out of a theatre mid-performance

We often go to the Key Theatre and we're seen some terrific stuff. However, one performance by an improvisation group called Showstoppers was so bad that we decided to leave in the interval. It was billed as an ad-lib musical and I thought it might be quite clever. This type of performance does ask a lot of the players and, sadly, they just weren't up to it. I did feel guilty, but couldn’t face another hour of it.

4. I became the editor of the Thorney Post

It's our village magazine, which comes out three times a year. The previous editor was well into her 80s and struggling to get the work done. It's not too difficult, but there's no salary and no expense account. It was a pretty newsy year, with wind turbines causing some planning controversies, so there was no trouble filling the pages. I got a web address - www.thorneypost.com - and built a website with Tom's help, we also have a Facebook page and a Twitter account. For the December edition, I changed printer and we managed to get the whole magazine in full colour.

5. I took Holly to dog agility

This is an assault course for dogs and Holly didn't really like it. She was so stiff the next day that she couldn't jump on the sofa! It didn't help that she was also attacked by this huge dog whose owner hadn't got a clue how to manage it. We went a few times, but I think Holly prefers a run on the beach or around Toneham. She did win the Easter competition for the longest jump by a medium-sized dog, so we went out on a high.

6. I went to a Flamenco show

The show, by an authentic Spanish troup was at Stamford Arts Centre and our trip was organised by Jackie, who goes to Spanish classes with me and also yoga with Margaret and my sister. It was very good. Mucho stomping and clapping.

7. I went up Boston Stump

My ride-out for the U3A motorcycle group was to Boston (Lincs) with a trip to the top of the stump for anyone fit enough. Four of us went up and it is quite a tough climb (I was puffing by the time I reached the top). The view is fantastic, although we failed to spot Lincoln Cathedral in the heat haze.

Me with U3A bikers at the top of the Stump

8. I got a greenhouse

I've always wanted a greenhouse and mine was finally erected in late spring, just in time to fill it with tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. It will be (and it is) a source of much pleasure. We got a 10-sided structure and built a special base for it as we wanted to site it next to the patio and therefore it had to look good.

My newly erected greenhouse

9. I visited a First World War battlefield

Max and I had a trip to Loos, where my grandfather Richard Little was in action for the first time. It was a classic Loos was a classic British army cock-up, with thousands of men needlessly killed in an attempt to make a bad plan work. We visited close to the 100th anniversary and it's still a chilling thing to visit the many military cemeteries. I'd done a study of the role of my grandfather's battalion and we were able to visit many parts of the battlefield where they had seen action.

The British Memorial and cemetery at the Lens Road Redoubt, Loos

10. I joined Probus

Probus is a social club for retired professional and business people. We meet twice a month - once for lunch and once for coffee and a speaker. There are also monthly walks and various excursions. I've quite enjoyed it - one of the things I missed about work was always meeting new people, so this has given me an opportunity to meet quite a few new folk and there are some interesting characters among them.

Probus president John Meehan welcomes me to the club

2015 - in two thousand words

It’s the end of another year; New Year fireworks have been going off since darkness fell around 4.30pm and Holly is enjoying a bark every time she hears a bang.

I’ve never been that keen on wild new year celebrations; I always get a bit maudlin. As Robert Burns wrote: “And forward, though I canna see, I guess an’ fear.” Of course, no-one quotes that at new year’s eve, they’re all too busy singing Auld Lang Syne.

I’m not normally a pessimist (and I’m not one now either). I don’t like to presume 2016 will be a good year, but I very much hope that it will be. So, instead of spoiling someone’s party with such serious melancholy, it’s best that I stay home and perhaps use my time constructively to write in my blog.

Lucy and I at La Plagne

2015 has certainly been an eventful year. It began with a fantastic skiing holiday in Sainte-Foy with Margaret, Sam and Lucy. Sam had booked the chalet and it was a fantastic place, my skiing was good by my modest standards and as well as Sainte-Foy, I also skied at La Rosiere (and into Italy) and La Plagne. Comedy moment of the holiday was skiing off the piste on the way down into Italy and ending up buried in soft powder snow. Crash of the week was a little incident on a half-pipe in La Plagne!

As soon as we were back, there was exciting news that Tom and Lucia were having a baby - our first grandchild. The 12-week scan was done and baby due in July. It seems so strange looking back that Julia wasn't around - how do you go (in one year) from being nothing to become such a large part of our lives.

Of course, that's what babies do. In January, Julia was just a due date, something that would happen in July. We didn't have a name, we didn't know if she was a boy or a girl ... Lucia completed her Masters at LSE, got an extension for her dissertation and bought the biggest, old-fashioned pink pram that you've ever seen (we knew by then that Julia would be a girl).

Christmas 2015 selfie with Julia and I (she
looks a little worried).

The name Julia was chosen before her birth to mark her as a July baby. As it happened, she arrived a little early on June 26, but she remained Julia, there was no move to call her June instead. She took the middle name Elena, after her great grandmother, Luisa Elena Cadena Gallo, who will be 100 in February.

There was a scare when she had to return to hospital with jaundice, but she was soon healthy and thriving. She was (and is) a happy, hungry baby.

February was the 50th anniversary of my mother's death. I wrote this piece in my diary: http://ericsdailydiary.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/it-is-50-years-ago-today-that-my-mother.html

March was a busy month. The earth was waking up again after winter and there was plenty to do at the allotment, where I have managed to cultivate half the plot so far. I have enjoyed having so much land to grow vegetables, but it is a lot of work and will increase during the summer. March was also busy because I had agreed to take on the job of producing the village magazine, The Thorney Post.

The previous editor, Irene Brookes, is in her mid-80s and has struggled to get a magazine out each time. She will stay on as treasurer, which is really helpful and she's also around for advice regarding contacts, advertisers, printers, etc. For my first edition, there was plenty of news, due to planning proposals and tribunals relating to wind turbines. Next to gypsies, nothing galvanises a community like a wind-farm.

I redesigned the magazine, added more news and increased the story count; in December I changed the printer and added full colour throughout. I also dropped the policy of always having an image of the church on the front page. People do approach me in the street and tell me how much they enjoy the magazine (which is nice, but won't continue much longer) and I also had a letter from the Parish Council after the December edition came out, saying how much the magazine had improved and thanking me for my work. My plan now is to get more people involved in its production - I don't want to be like Irene, still doing it on my own at 85.

In June, we had a week in Jersey with Sam and Lucy. We stayed at the Royal Yacht hotel and had a nice time, mainly walking and eating. It has turned out to be a big year for them - Sam bought into the practice, so he's committed himself to live in Jersey for his working life. In September, they also announced that Lucy is pregnant, so this March we'll have a second grandchild - a grandson in fact. Finally, they bought a house in November in a parish called St Lawrence - quite a year's work.

In July, I had a greenhouse erected. It had been on order for six or eight weeks and I'd had to do a fair bit of work to get the ground prepared and base in place. The work started with removing the three big conifers which had stood at the end of the patio. I had them taken down and then I ground down the stumps with a stump-grinder (logically enough). I then discovered the plot wasn't quite big enough, so we had to rebuild a retaining wall a little higher and on a new radius and create a circular base with a drain hole in the middle.

I'm really pleased with the greenhouse. It's eight-sided (octagonal) in wood, stained green. We had to complain because the tongue and groove boards were not knocked in properly, but they came and replaced all those. We grew chilli peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes.

I've always wanted a greenhouse, so it's fantastic to have one at long last. The allotment is bearing fruit, we've had a crop of apples, courgettes, broad beans, runner beans and peas. Carrots, beetroot, parsnips and brassicas are also on the menu. There were disappointments - it was a very dry spring and early summer, so germination of some things was patchy, the Ecuardorian corn needed more sun, water and space, so we'll understand that better for this year, also my onions developed white rot, a fungal disease, which means I may not be able to grow them easily in future. I'm going to try some sets on the other side of the plot in 2016.

There have been three moves this year, first was Max's, then Sam and finally Tom. Max had decided on a career change; he gave up teaching in July to return to university. He wants a career with something to do with the environment, so is doing a Master’s in environmental studies at Leicester. He and Inna have moved back in with Marina and Michael (Inna's parents). In August, I hired a large van and we packed their belongings in Penge and took some to Wigston and some to Thorney. Apart from their clothes, which are in Wigston, there is furniture and belongings at Inna's parents', our house and loft and in my sister's garage.

Sam's move didn't impact on us. I think it's the first move where I haven't lifted a single settee. Their furniture had been stored at Lucy's parents' second home in Ramsgate and they hired a removal company to ship it all across to Jersey in a container and into their new home.

I went across for a week in November to help with some decorating. It was nice to paint what will be the baby's room; we also did the lounger/diner, the hall and stairs. They have a nice house in St Lawrence, which is just outside St Helier. It has a sea view from the upper floors and a nice position and garden, which is south-facing and will be a sun trap in summer.

New, bolder colour for the hall.

The house has been much changed. It started life as a two-storey, flat-roofed building and has been converted into three storeys by adding a floor on top, plus a pitched roof. There's lots of room and the house has a massive bedroom/bathroom and balcony on the top floor.

Tom was the last house move. He has been living in Sydenham Hill in a flat in a lovely old house, but the rent (over £2,000 per month) was a killer. They decided to move north, into Herfordshire, and found a nice two-storey, two-bedroom home in an old maltings in Baldock. I know Baldock a little from attending business meetings with a data company we considered buying. It's a nice town, quite pretty (not Stamford pretty), but very nice. The A1 once ran through the town and it would have been a coaching stop. Many of the larger houses have courtyards and arches through to what would have been stables. There are lots of pubs, some restaurants, shops, a library and a knitting shop.

There was a bit of a glitch with move dates, which meant Tom and Lucy had to move out of London a week before they could move into Baldock. We solved the problem by moving them to Thorney for a week. We managed to cram everything into our spare room and my sister's garage (thank goodness for Auntie's garage) and it was nice to have them around. The following weekend, we hired another van and moved them to Baldock.

We were lucky to be able to park almost outside and their house is really nice; well decorated and modern, but with nice features.

In the square at Loos

In September Max and I went to Loos in northern France to visit the battlefield where my grandfather Little went into action for the first time in 1915. The First World War is not short of hellish battles and, in many ways, Loos was just one more. To think my grandfather lived through it and to walk and cycle across land where he was shelled, machine-gunned and sniped was quite special.

That was also the month of Julia’s Christening (September 27) in Peterborough Cathedral. It was nice that Lucy’s mother Nidia was able to come across for a couple of weeks either side of the event. Emilia had been here for some weeks before, helping out with Julia and, soon after Nidia left for Ecuador, Emilia returned with Lucy and Julia in tow so that Julia could be shown off to her Ecuadorian relations. Already Julia is better travelled than I am!

Christening (with godparents) in Peterborough Cathedral