Micheal Mosely

Such a shame that Micheal Mosely died while holidaying on a small Greek island, but the way he died is surprising. He always appeared to think problems through before taking any chances so why did he go walking when the temperature was about forty degrees with just water and an umbrella for shade but crucially no phone.

Many people stated he would leave his phone behind because that gave him a little oasis, a brief spell of serenity and I can understand that. It could be that he intended to only walk for a short distance and then felt so good that he continued without realizing he had walked much farther than he had intended and suddenly started to dehydrate. So do you walk further or try to retrace your previous route.

It all comes back to the one thing we all do throughout our lives; Make mistakes. The survivors are the ones who make the right decisions.

Another Birthday

How quickly they come around but my theory is that time in-between birthdays is approximately relative to the years of your life, so when you are two, time passes twice as fast as when you are one. This is quite worrying because I was eighty-two yesterday so I can’t afford to blink or I will miss a whole year.

My Daughter, son-in-law, and youngest granddaughter Daisy who is sixteen came down from Manchester and took us to Ashwoods Garden Centre which is about a forty-minute drive from where we live. It’s my favorite one with a nice collection of plants and a lovely restaurant that serves simple but excellent food; a place that never gets too crowded.

There is an amazing garden(Johns Garden) that spreads over a large distance; there is an entrance fee of £7.50 but it is worth every penny and I believe the money goes to research for the treatment of brain cancer as one of the young staff (John) died from this terrible disease.

I just blinked so I will have to check what year it is.

The Weather in England

Theoretically, it’s the middle of summer in the UK so we should be experiencing global warming, but it’s definitely not happening here. Well, to be fair we are getting rain; usually for six out of the seven days in the week, and even the day without rain is cloudy.

And it’s so cold, with many households using their central heating when the reverse should be happening and cooling systems should be switched on.

My garden is not very big, but a small oasis, surrounded by Accers, most in pots but the larger ones growing in the ground, mingled in-between are different types of hydranger’s and star Jasmin, all of them have grown taller and faster than previous years, but without the warmth from the Sun they are refusing to open and many of the shrubs have grown so tall that I have continuously pruned them.

Let her Go

I noticed that it’s over twelve years since Passenger produced the iconic song LET HER GO ( 1.5 billion views on the internet). I remember hearing it for the first time as I walked through a large retail store in Birmingham. I immediately stopped and listened as the tune and lyrics took me back to bittersweet moments in my life, pivot points, that could have taken my pathway through it in different directions and I always wonder if that would have been an improvement or a disaster. Perhaps its best not to think to deep.

Some weekends late in the evenings I pour myself a glass of red wine, put on the most amazing headphones that my children bought me, link them up to You Tube and imerse myself in musical videos that take the years away back to when I was starting out in life with no sat nav to guide me and no post code to put in it. Winging it.

I was sixteen, in a cafe with a friend waiting for a plate of chips, he put some money in the juke box and pressed play, the robotic arm hovered over a disk then uneringly placed it on the turntable and the mixture that represented Bird Dog drifted to every corner of the room, searching for suitable host’s.

Twenty one Great Yarmouth, She Was Just seventeen;Forteen Rocking Through the Rye; Hunters hill open air school. The first time I heard the word Rock in music. Music is the most reliable timepiece; but if anyone has a spare rolex I am willing to use it as a back up.

One minute that will change your life

Apart from the minute when you die there is another moment in time that if we live long enough will change how we are perceived and dramatically alter our existence.

It’s the minute that changes you from a 79-year-old to an eighty-year-old. Your car insurance doubles in price Travel insurance becomes so expensive that those lazy days spent in Cyprus are replaced by a three-day excursion to Ryle, but even worse you have to go off-peak when the sun is a distant memory from last summer; and this year’s sun has not risen. You no longer walk in a straight line which is like; manner-from-heaven to the police if you are pulled over as a suspected drink-driver.

Now for the benefits ……………………There aren’t any.

My moan is because my car insurance has risen from £374.00 to £754.00, I have looked on every website and the lowest price I can get is £540.00

L V, have a website, Age Co, that states they insure drivers up to the age of 110.00 when you try it and complete all the forms it states they no longer insure people over the age of eighty.

I complained to the management who said they have not updated their website yet, but don’t have to.

I said ageism is a form of racism; they didn’t reply, even if they reverse their policies I don’t think I will be accepted.

At nearly eighty Two I don’t consider myself as old and don’t live in the past,.

Just noticed the time and its past when I listen to my sixties music, must get the ear trumpet out.

Another Funeral

This time it was my wife’s Uncle’s wife, ( Does that make any sense ) they had been happily married for a long time, although Les died quite a few years ago. Then Babera moved into secure accommodation in Torquay, it’s a nice town on the seafront but very hilly, not ideal for older people but it didn’t seem to prevent them from living there.

We stopped at Travel Lodge for two nights which was clean but basic. The staff were extremely helpful. The funeral was held at a small chapel on the edge of the town, the upside of the ceremony was meeting her son and daughter who we hadn’t seen for a very long time, Ailsa Cox had been a professor and wrote short stories, her brother had run a steel business and recently retired. It was nice to talk about past times; a sure sign of aging, because when your young you talk about the future.

We swopped Addresses and Phone numbers promising to keep in contact and I hope we do

Uncle Georges Funeral

It went as well as a funeral can and was held in a pretty Church in Fordingbridge Hampshire. There was only his Daughter, Grandaughter, my wife and myself, plus four carers from the home where he spent the last twelve years of his life at the ceremony, he had far outlived his friends and relatives.

We went back to the home and thanked all of them for looking after him, they had become his family and he theirs.

It was nice to meet my cousin unfortunately it was her Mother’s Funeral the last time we met and that was many years ago. The way I judge time now is that it speeds up as we age and now I am eighty-one it passes 81 times faster than when I was born.

In the first year of life, a day lasts forever.

Pennies Husband Clive King wrote the children’s book Stig of the Dump and it is still very popular.

I hope we can keep in contact more often even if it is through the Internet.

The War in Gaza

Israel may prevail in the war in Gaza but Hamas represents an idea that will remain in the minds of many Palestinians and the only chance to change this concept is to offer them a future, this needs to be implemented now, not only by Israel but by the international community. As I posted previously Gaza needs to be rebuilt with new hospitals and universities. And possibly a land of their own.

Wars aren’t always won with weapons but sometimes with psychology.

Good Bye Uncle George

My mom’s brother died this week at the age of 104, just missing his 105th birthday on the first of January. He always thought he would die at a young age, but perhaps he was hoping to live his life far beyond 104. He was still mobile until a few weeks ago but gradually dropped into a deep sleep before slipping away.

He achieved far more in his life than many people. Born in Balsall Heath, a slum area of Birmingham, in a back-to-back-house and one of fourteen children, of which only five survived.

George served as a medic in the army, then studied and became the principal of a major Hospitable in London.

So what do I remember most? Well, it was his voice. It was the sort that was easy to listen to and went well with his sense of humour.

But it was his party- trick that impressed me most because if you gave him a three-figure number, then a lower three-figure number he could take one from the other instantly without knowing how he did it.

AI Convention

Regarding the convention that has been formed to discuss the dangers that A Is may present in the future. It consists of diplomats, important people, and of course some of the world’s greatest brains.

It’s very comforting to think that they are taking precautions just in case A Is may present some type of threat.

It is quite possible that the conclusion when all the talking ends will be that there is no present danger.

Of course, if they had studied the small print at the bottom of the invite they would have realized that the invites were sent from an AI.

The New Beatles single

But there are some benefits from using the latest AI innovations because a new Beatles record has been produced and it sounds quite good. It is obvious that this system will also be used not just for musical reproduction but also for historical events. I wonder where this will lead the human race.