The Lull Before Christmas

December 15, 2021 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Life has been relatively quiet recently and, increasingly, I have dipped out of large social gatherings such as the Community Shop Christmas Party and the monthly local Pub Quiz. This is in the hope that I avoid the latest Omicron variant of Coronavirus at least until after the Christmas period.

Christmas too is going to involve fewer social contacts than usual but we do hope to see all our sons, their partners and our new grandchild. It’s going to be a treat but a different treat from the usual.

The last few days have included a number of Christmas preparations (including my booster jab). Our family are doing a Secret Santa again this year so little present buying is required. But, despite the other differences to our Christmas Day this year, I am maintaining the recent traditions of home-made party hats and a Christmas picture quiz. Both are now ready to go.

Local walks have continued to be a Covid-safe feature of my retirement. I’ve been on a couple of different ones with mates from the village. That is always interesting, not only for the conversation but because, no matter how many times I traverse the local footpaths, they almost always take me on routes or to places that they know but which are slightly different from my normal haunts.

*^L^{ocal Woodland Old Spot Pigs – Well Fed By The Undergrowth And Rather Fatter Since The Last Time I Saw Them!}*

*^{An Unusual, Local Double-Stepped Stile I Hadn’t Seen Before}*

Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I also squeezed in a rather impromptu visit to Bath. Walking past the Georgian Crescents and through the streets reprised a visit we did a couple of months ago. Then, I visited The Holburne Museum and saw an interesting exhibition on (Dante Gabriel) Rossetti and his portraits of his muses and girlfriends (usually, they were both). He certainly seems to like women with big, lustrous hairdos!

*^{A Rossetti Portrait, Holburne Museum, Bath}*

*^{View Of Great Pulteney Street From The Holburne Museum}*

This time, the main purpose to the visit was to try out lunch at the relatively new Landrace Bakery. We have loved the Bakery and café since it opened well before Covid struck; LSW has been going there since it opened. Landrace has more than survived the lockdowns of the last 18 months by evolving and shifting its focus to takeaway and, most recently, a small restaurant upstairs. The lunch we had there didn’t disappoint. The service was informal but excellent, the servings were tasty and of a good size and, despite the ‘London prices’, lunch was good value overall. We’ll go again and we recommend it.

*^{Georgian Crescents Overlooking High Common, Bath}*

^{Luke Jerram’s Impressive ‘Moon’ Artwork, On Show When We Visited Bath Cathedral}

But now, attention turns to a trip to Scotland and to Christmas. The socialising may have been scaled back in the run up and the numbers around the Christmas table will be less than a third of last year. Nonetheless I am looking forward to it more than ever after the constraints of the last year and in advance of the restrictions that are likely to come as the pandemic moves to its next stage. Hopefully we will get away with a great little Christmas!

I hope too that readers of this have a happy and healthy Christmas and holiday period.

Goodbye (Good Riddance) 2020

December 31, 2020 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Most of 2020 was pretty awful for the World due to the coronavirus pandemic. For many, it will be a year remembered as one in which health and jobs were impacted hugely and where tragedy struck. It is surely everyone’s hope that vaccines and natural progression of the virus will mean that, during 2021, the incidence of such these impacts and tragedies will lessen to insignificance.

I have confessed in these blogs that the impact of the pandemic on me personally, especially during the spring and summer, has generally felt little more than inconvenience with a touch of boredom. Certainly the personal impact of the pandemic has been much less than Middle Son’s accident in 2019. My Mum contracted the virus in her care home but has recovered. Phone and Zoom calls have provided the means of staying in touch with Dad. Youngest Son briefly lost work but that just meant we had the pleasure of his company in our home for a few months. We have been very lucky so far. Nonetheless, I am very glad to be saying goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021 and a new feeling of hopefulness.

Our family Christmas with all three of our sons here in Gloucestershire was made possible by Middle Son’s girlfriend being willing to drive Middle and Eldest Son across London just before the Tier 4 lockdown was announced, a bit of bending of the rules relating to Christmas gatherings, and a bit of judicious coronavirus testing.

Wrenching Middle and Eldest Son out of London earlier than planned caused some upheaval to their plans. Eldest Son had some more work to complete. Middle Son hadn’t had time to relax after finishing work for the year. He showed the signs of work stress that reminded me vividly of the sort of stress I used to suffer when I was working in a big corporation. Soon though, everyone chilled out and we had a few lovely and highly-valued days together. I hope all readers of this were able to enjoy the Christmas period as much.

We ate well, with everyone sharing in the cooking, and our recycling bin reveals that we drank well too. The weather was kind enough to allow some very pleasurable local walks over the Christmas period. The exercise from those walks enabled periods of guilt-free slouching on the sofa in front of the fire, watching films and football on the TV together. Long-Suffering Wife has just bought a new, wider screen TV so it would have been rude not to!

*Sunny Christmas Day Walk Above Horsley Village*

Rather boldly, we have already planned next Christmas. On Christmas Day Youngest Son noticed that a property on the western edge of Skye in Scotland, that he had been alerted to by Eldest Son’s girlfriend, was free for 2021 Christmas week. Immediately the other sons expressed interest and so we booked it straightaway. Hopefully our sons’ respective girlfriends will also be able to join us for at least part of that Christmas week. Christmas 2020 was a very different Christmas from normal and 2021’s Christmas promises to be even more different; that is an extra thing to look forward to in 2021.

I’m sure 2021 is going to have its challenges. Climate change may (should!) start to take centre stage in terms of a World crisis. The impact of the recent Brexit deal will bite across the UK. Forest Green Rovers football club might not be promoted. Other First -World problems might beset us. But, with 2020 finally done and dusted, we can look forward in hope to less social distancing and more normal personal interactions, more unimpeded travel, and Christmas in Skye.

Happy New Year!

*The Garden Under The First Real Snow of the Winter*

Back In The Shire

December 15, 2019 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Those who follow this blog, or otherwise know me, will know that I am an urban man at heart. For most of my adult life, the city – specifically London – has been the place to live and the country has been something to visit. Now I’m retired to the country and visit the city. I had a good dose of London life earlier this month but, for the last week or so, I’ve thrown myself into rural living back in Gloucestershire; it has been relatively various, worthy and entertaining.

The rainy weather hasn’t prevented me getting out for daily, lengthy walks. LSW and some of her local friends have taken me on some routes I have not ventured on before and that has been enlightening. I continue to get to know the area and to enjoy walking in it. I’m comfortable that my steps target for the year is going to be met easily – one of the few 2019 resolutions that will be, I fear.

A New Walk Through Beech Woods

Of course, Christmas is coming (putting my 2019 resolution target for alcohol free days in jeopardy). I attended my first party of the season last week courtesy of the management of the Horsley Village Community Shop. Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) works there very part time and so was invited gratis. I paid an entrance fee to attend alongside her. It was a very lively and pleasant celebration and a chance for me to get to know a few more local people. The event packed out the village pub for the second time in a few days following the monthly village quiz a few days before.

The village shop, like the village pub, survives on the margins of commercial viability. The shop is reliant on hardworking management and a squad of very part time volunteers like LSW. I have been tempted to join this assorted band but have focused instead on helping with the Neighbourhood Plan and a small volunteer group looking to promote carbon neutrality in the village.

Delivery of Fresh Duchy Farm Vegetables To The Horsley Community Village Shop

Already, the Parish Council has supervised the planting of over 100 small trees this Autumn as part of a drive to increase carbon sequestration across the Parish. More planting is planned and there are even grander plans in our nearby town of Nailsworth. There, a symbolic start was made with the planting of a single holm oak and the distribution of around 100 smaller trees to those, including LSW and I, who turned up to watch. We picked up a guilder rose tree and now need to complete the bargain by planting it.

Ceremonial Tree Planting In Nailsworth – The First Of Many!

One further bit of worthiness was a bit of renovation of the Horsley churchyard paths that I arrived just in time to make a minimal contribution to. Village activities like these all help to make me feel part of the rural life here after decades of city living.

Gravel Laying In Horsley Churchyard (That’s My Spade Resting Lower Left)

The Neighbourhood Plan is now drafted and under review by Stroud District Council. The hardcopy available in the village shop looks great and the pictures, especially, bring it to life. It will be interesting to see what critique the Council provide – especially of the proposed ‘local green spaces’, one of which is adjacent to our land.

Comments and subsequent reworking of the Plan are not likely until next year and current attention is on consultation around the wider Gloucestershire County Local Plan. I have some work to do in the New Year to help provide the village council with comments on this Plan from a carbon neutral and sustainability point of view. I also need to analyse and present some recent village survey data on thermal efficiency. Until all that is done, I don’t feel like tying myself down to a shift in the village shop.

Christmas preparations are underway in our house. Some of the Christmas lights are already up. The Christmas tree is bought and will be erected and decorated next week. That is all LSW’s province.

Christmas Lights In Our Kitchen/Diner Reception And Down The Stairs

My main Christmas task is to develop the annual family Christmas quiz. This will follow Christmas dinner (with the 19 members of LSW’s family including me and our sons who will all be with us this year) and has become a bit of a tradition over the last decade or so. I have also taken on making Christmas party hats from old newspapers and packaging these up with jokes from the Internet and a chocolate. The first batch of ten hats is nearing completion – this is a small stab at recycling rather than buying lots of throwaway crackers.

First Batch Of Christmas Paper Hats (Tasteful Financial Times Pink)

I’m back up to London next week to see the Moving to Mars exhibition at the Design Museum that Eldest Son is keen to see and for which he has bought tickets. The visit gives LSW and I a chance to wish Eldest and Youngest Sons’ girlfriends happy Christmas personally. From London I will then travel north to Nottingham to do the same with my Mum and Dad. Then, it will be back to the shire once again for the Christmas Pub Quiz and the rest of the festive period. All good!

Secret Santa Scores A Hit

February 24, 2019February 24, 2019 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Last Christmas, Long-Suffering Wife (LSW), our three sons and I, decided to replace the tradition of us each giving everyone else a present, with a Secret Santa arrangement. In this, each person draws a lot to determine which single person they should buy a Secret Santa present for up to a (relatively small) price limit. This allows more focus and so reduces considerably the stress of (useful) present buying and the chance of getting something unwanted.

The reason I recall this now is that last week I was able to act upon my Secret Santa present: a ticket to a gig by Yo La Tengo at Hackney Arts Centre. Actually, the giver, Eldest Son (ES), was no secret and, indeed, I went with him. But Secret Santa was, for me as a receiver, a great hit.

Yo La Tengo is a band I have loved since I started buying albums by them in 2000. In fact, they have been together as a three piece since the mid 1980’s and, as ES said after the gig, they have become very proficient at what they do. Their music varies from gentle muses to Velvet Underground-like wig outs. Unfortunately they didn’t rock ES’s boat but I loved almost all of the two-and-a-half hour performance. I’m still humming their tunes to myself every day.

The venue is a gutted old cinema with bare walls and the seats taken out (contrary to the picture of comfortable seating on their website!). We had to sit on nicely preserved, but very hard, wooden steps. My back and bum could only take hour of that but then I was able to stand at the front and the two halves of the gig from the two vantage points was nice variety.

Yo La Tengo At Hackney Arts Centre

I made two separate trips to London last week. During these I met with a fellow retiree ex-work colleague for lunch, caught up with Middle Son (MS) for breakfast and met up with ES and his girlfriend. I also went once again to my favourite folk club – The Lantern Society – which was once again consistently good across 10 brief but high quality and varied acts.

Live At The Lantern Society

I then travelled up to my parents in Nottingham and jumped on from there to Mansfield to see my football team (lose entertainingly again).

Forest Green Rovers At Mansfield Town (With 170 Fellow Travelling Supporters)

The most surprising element amid all this was a visit I made to the Guildhall Art Gallery. Although it is only a 10 minute walk from where I lived for 20 years, I had never been before. I went to see an exhibition of Victorian art portraying lives and perceptions of children. However, I also walked around the rest of an impressive gallery and the very well exhibited remains of a Roman amphitheatre in the bowels of the building. London never ceases to surprise.

Guildhall Art Gallery (Pre-Raphaelite Section)

Roman Amphitheatre Under The Guildhall, London

The main exhibition at the gallery, called Seen and Heard was interesting, informative and well presented. It resonated well with a book I’m just finishing called A House Unlocked by Penelope Lively. As it happens this was another Christmas present, this time from LSW’s Aunt. Lively uses her memory of artefacts and aspects of a rather grand childhood home in west Somerset to launch narratives on how various elements of social life have changed in the last 150 years or so.

The First Sermon and The Second Sermon By Millais

The First Sermon (Girl Sleeping) and The Second Sermon (Girl Not Sleeping) By Millais At The ‘Seen And Heard’ Exhibition

Lively covers childhood, gardening, hunting, immigration and marriage and much more. The chapters covering childhood and parenting interlocked with some of what I saw at the Guildhall and it all rang true. In particular, the section on her marriage got me nodding my head in agreement. Here is an extract of one paragraph:

“Every marriage is a journey, a negotiation, an accommodation. In a long marriage, both partners will mutate; the people who set out together are not the same two people after ten years, let alone thirty or more…… Our marriage was like most; it had its calm reaches, its sudden treacherous bends, its episodes of white water to be navigated with caution and a steady nerve…… We meshed entirely in tastes and inclinations, could always fire one another with new interest, and laid down over the years that rich sediment of shared references and mutual recognition familiar to all who have known long companionship. You are separate people, but there is a shadowy presence which is an entity, the fusion of you both.”

I’m expecting LSW and I to build another layer of sediment of shared memory over the next few weeks as we travel to Qatar and then tour Sydney, Tasmania and Perth in Australia. Watch this space.

Happy ‘Holidays’!

December 31, 2018 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Of course, having retired, the period arounds Christmas and New Year’s Day are no longer really holidays for me. But still, they are time for families to get together and to eat, drink and be at least a bit merrier than usual (at least, for the fortunate families). We have managed that and I hope readers of this did too.

LSW’s Minimalist Wreath

Eldest and Middle Sons came back to visit us for a few days around Christmas and it was great to spend time with them and to see them go off to catch up with their old school mates. It’s important that they maintain those ties and I regret not doing so when I was their age. We spoke to and saw Youngest Son (YS) on WhatsApp but he was enjoying prawns and beer on a Queensland beach. He tells us that it may be his last beach Christmas in Australia and that he will return to England next year. Before that, LSW and I are travelling to Australia and meeting YS in Tasmania in March to make the most of him being on the other side of the world.

Christmas Day here was just about as full-on as usual. Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) allocated tasks to the boys and I, and she provided all but the turkey for a dozen excited extended family members. As part of a well tried split of responsibilities, the family of LSW’s younger brother brought a sumptuous roasted bird for us to tuck into. The food was terrific.

The post-lunch quiz that I compiled (to fulfil what has become a bit of a family tradition) was as hotly contested as usual, but it rounded off the afternoon nicely prior to flaking out in front of a Netflix film and a few lunch left-overs.

I side-stepped some of the festivities and food on Boxing Day by going off to Newport to watch Forest Green Rovers. I enjoyed finding the old part of the city and a Cathedral I didn’t know Newport had. But I loved, even more, that we achieved one of our best wins of the season. I came back hoarse but happy.

St Woolos Cathedral, Newport, Wales: Very Old, Dramatically Sited And Very Pretty Inside

Forest Green Rovers Supporters Watch A Mighty Win At Newport County

This ‘holiday’ period is traditionally a time when I consider New Year resolutions. But first I need to check how I did against those I set last year and the answer is: only moderately. I’ve succeeded with those that are essentially enjoyable but not so well on those that were more challenging.

So, for example, I did grow a beard and I’m happy with it. I did buy LSW more flowers too and need to reinvigorate that resolution when Spring comes around again. Also, I exceeded my target of averaging 15,000 walking steps a day (I averaged 15,880) but that’s because I love walking and now have loads of time to do it in the beautiful surrounding valleys. That much walking did help me to (just) achieve my target of lowering my weight to 11 stone in the summer and then again just before Christmas. However, I need to renew that weight objective since Christmas eating and drinking has tripped me back over target.

On A Frosty Walk Just Before Christmas – Probably The 300th Time Past This Spot In 2018 But, Every Time, Slightly Different

I also have to renew my objective of achieving 140 no-alcohol days in the year. I only managed 120 – more than the previous year but not enough. I underestimated the impact of the wonderful sunny and hot summer on my evening drinking habits; it was just so nice sitting in the newly built garden in the evening warmth with a cold glass of wine day after day. I hope summer next year is as good but I will be stronger willed, I promise.

On the technology front, I did, as resolved, change almost all my passwords and did it in a way that hasn’t made remembering them too hard. However, I haven’t done much about my resolution to get a better Internet service so as to reduce frustrated evenings in front of the rotating wait signal on the telly when trying to watch catch-up TV. However, I have instigated, and eavesdropped on, conversations at the regular village pub Men’s Nights with those who know more than I about the local broadband implementation. Fibre broadband is coming next year apparently.

I’m disappointed with myself that I’m carrying forward the resolution to implement better compost heaps in the garden. I have made progress with the existing heaps and compost bins. However, while I’m blaming the side strain I suffered a couple of months ago, I know I should have done more. The components for the super-duper compost bins LSW gave me a few years ago remain untouched in the shed. Fixing this is another resolution to carry forward.

I’ll augment the carry forward resolutions with a couple of new ones but I’m off to enjoy New Year’s Eve first. Have fun!

Christmassy Cologne

December 13, 2018December 13, 2018 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I have just returned from a few days in Cologne primarily to see the Christmas markets there. There is a wide choice of excellent north European Christmas markets. We chose Cologne due to the convenience of flights Bristol, our closest international airport, advice from the Internet, and glowing reports in Nigel Slater’s Christmas Chronicles (which LSW loves). Also, I haven’t been to Germany since I worked there briefly in the 70’s and 80’s and it was LSW’s first-ever trip to Germany.

View Of Cologne From The Kohl Triangle Skyscraper

Cologne is far from being the most beautiful city we have visited – second-world war flattening of the city put paid to that. However, Christmas markets were lovely, the food was very satisfying, the art galleries were excellent and the cathedral is one of the biggest and most imposing I have visited. The hotel we stayed in was located perfectly just 15 minutes-walk from the touristy bustle but near the interesting Belgian Quarter. We had a very good break from routine.

There were a number of highlights. Coming into the city on the airport train, one can’t help but be impressed by the river, rail station and first views of the impressively huge and dark cathedral looming over the city centre. It was interesting looking back at archive photos of the ruins after the second-world war and the comparison to the buildings today. The recovery has been remarkable but architectural beauty has largely been sacrificed for speed of redevelopment and functionality.

Today

Post World War

Apart from the sheer scale of the cathedral, the highlight architecturally was the Kolumba Museum. This was an unexpected treat. Not only was the building airy, innovative, minimalistic and inspiring, but the art displayed in this gallery – built on an old, ruined church partly preserved on part of the ground floor – was beautiful and beautifully displayed. There was actually relatively little on show but the simple juxtaposition of very old (1^st to 3^rd century) artefacts alongside more modern pieces was thought provoking and some of the older items were just exquisite. Kolumba alone made our Cologne trip worthwhile.

Kolumba Museum; Intriguing Mix Of Old And New

But there was much more. The Museum Ludwig was well stocked with art by Picasso, Leger, Braque, Calder, Bacon, Warhol, Lichtenstein and a number of others I recognised plus a number of German artists I didn’t know including Gabriele Munter and Bernard Schultze. Some of the space was lovely with muted colours and reconstituted, broad parquet floors.

Museum Ludwig

While LSW shopped, I went to Cologne’s main cemetery at Melaten-Friedhof. I get a strangely relaxed enjoyment from wandering through continental cemeteries. This one was rather different from those typically found in Mediterranean countries. Among the mature trees and semi-managed undergrowth, there were rectangular family plots of various sizes and populated with evergreen planting rather than bulky tombs. On many, rather than pictures of the deceased, there were odd little statues (and labels indicating the maintenance company for the plot; very efficient!) It was a very peaceful hour despite a short, sharp shower. I even had the bonus of seeing my first wild red squirrel.

Melaten-Friedhof Cemetery

Then it was back to the Christmas markets. We visited five or six markets over the three days. Each had a slightly different feel or scale. They were most atmospheric at night when they were simultaneously both garishly and beautifully lit and were busiest, but gluhwein seemed to be offered all day. We drank the warming, gently alcoholic liquid out of traditional boot-shaped mugs while taking in its smells and that of aniseed, pine and cooked meat from the surrounding wooden hut stalls.

We Ate And Drank Well: Craft Beer, Schweinhaxen, Gluhwein

I failed in my lengthy quest to buy a red, spotted toadstool Christmas tree decoration which had become my heart’s desire having spotted one in a closed shop on our first evening in Cologne. But we did come away with tinsel, a new Christmas tree decoration and a surprisingly large number of lovely, hand-made brushes. The markets, the food and the drink all lived up to Nigel Slater’s promise.

Cologne Cathedral (Almost Impossible To Fit In A Picture)

Cologne Christmas Markets

Back home now, LSW has used the Christmas momentum our trip generated to get our Christmas tree up and decorated. Twelve more sleeps to Christmas….

Christmas Is Coming!

Two Exhibitions And More

December 8, 2018 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

For those who followed my last post, no, I didn’t write this on the train home from London. No, I didn’t stay awake either but I didn’t snore (surely not!).

I was tired after my trip to London. I didn’t get back until late on Monday from seeing Malcolm Middleton (an indie-rock Scottish depressive who somehow always manages to cheer me up with what he calls his ‘downbeat shite’) in a converted old men’s club in Hackney. Then, on Tuesday, I went to see the Japanese film and Palme D’Or winner called Shoplifters with Eldest and Middle Sons and that didn’t finish until quite late. Those relatively late nights were each followed by a couple of nights on a sofa bed which is never as restful as my own bed, a lot of walking through Christmassy streets and a nice lunch with an old ex-work colleague.

Malcolm Middleton And Band At The Moth Club

Quite a lot of the walking was around a couple of exhibitions.

The first was Fashioned From Nature at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) which is on for another month or so and which I would recommend. The V&A has an amazing permanent collection of fashion but this exhibition was more interesting for me (I am hardly a fashionista!) because it dealt more with the social and environmental impact of fashion than the development of fashion through the ages.

There were certainly some remarkable individual pieces of clothing but the focus was on how humans initially used nature to cloth ourselves – using flax for linen, fur, cotton, silk, bone, feathers and even beetle shells – and then how fashion and clothing manufacture has damaged nature through mass production/consumption.

Fashioned From Nature Exhibition At The V&A

That environmental damage began even before the industrial revolution. I learnt, for example, that the phrase ‘mad as a hatter’ came from the mercury poisoning common among those who made felt hats. They breathed in the mercury nitrate they used and that disoriented them before they flushed it into the water supply. As synthetic materials were developed and mass produced, so the risk of chemical damage increased, the demand for agricultural monocultures grew, slavery became rife, and the problems of pollution and waste (such as management of micro-plastics resulting from clothing) became more complex.

Ornate Flowered Hat By Philip Treacy

A Cellulose Dress

Protest Fashion

There were a wide range of interesting exhibits showing sustainable fashion. Others illustrated how fashion has been used to highlight the importance of clothing reuse and repair, and the impact of fashion on nature. Overall it was an impressive, relevant exhibition and an absorbing hour or two.

I also visited the Modern Couples exhibition at the Barbican which was subtitled Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde. This exhibition pulls together work of 40 couples active in art in the last century. It attempts to show how these couples, through their passion, ideas, contacts and often experimental and strange relationships, influenced the work they produced.

Death and Life By Klimt

Toboggan Man By Lavinia Schultz & Walter Holdt

Bird Superior By Leonora Carrington

As with the Fashioned from Nature exhibition, there were some very strong individual pieces on show. Many of the relationships that were described were very interesting with several of the featured artists (Max Ernst and Man Ray, for example) cropping up two or three times in apparently intense but short-lived liaisons. Some of couples’ relationships ended in suicide or murders of passion. As I navigated the exhibition, I became increasingly thankful for my rather more straightforward and stable married relationship.

I Am Beautiful by Rodin (An Amalgam Of Two Previously Separate Works In Celebration Of His Love)

Over 40 interwoven themes were explored across the 40 couples presented – including how the men in the relationship tended to become the more famous even where the participants were libertarian and feminist. These themes and the sheer number of couples covered made the exhibition large and rather complex. It was impressive but I confess that I had to absorb it over two sessions; fortunately I now have the time to do that sort of pacing.

In other news: the Volkswagen is back. Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) has been grudgingly reliant on my ailing and rust-ridden Saab to get to work. But now the local garage has replaced the Volkswagen’s engine (and more) following the cam-belt assembly failure a couple of weekends ago. They did this all at their cost since it was the cam-belt replacement they had done that prompted the problem. The garage even gave us a bottle of wine for our trouble so we will continue to use them and recommend them – provided the car gets us to the airport tomorrow on our way to the Christmas markets of Cologne. We’re looking forward to them.

London’s Regent Street Christmas Lights

2017 Resolution Review

December 31, 2017December 31, 2017 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

I hope that you had a great Christmas.

I enjoyed the festive period a lot, and probably even more than usual. There was variety – terrific Christmas lunch with family, visits from very old friends, and sunny walks with local, relatively new friends. There was proper Winter weather with quantities of snow we haven’t seen for a few years. Critically, for the first time in a while, we had all three sons with us plus the added dimension of Middle Son’s girlfriend and a great friend of Youngest Son over from Australia. Things were going on a lot of the time but it was relaxed.

Nailsworth (My Local Town) In Winter

The snow made the landscape beautiful. Long Suffering Wife (LSW) and I had a lovely walk through it just after Boxing Day with a friend from university (and Best Man at our wedding). His Christmas period visits over the years have often coincided with cold, crisp weather and he wasn’t disappointed this time around. The only down side was the ice which caused us both to fall over like little old men – in my case leaving me with a ricked neck that I am still nursing. Since then, LSW has frequently pointed out the efficacy of actually wearing the ‘Yak Traks’ that aid shoe grip rather than just having them in one’s pocket!

: Snowy Cotswolds

Inevitably perhaps, I ate and drank a lot over the Christmas period. That messed with two of my 2017 New Year resolutions concerning weight loss and the count of no-alcohol days. Before resetting the resolutions for 2018 I have briefly taken stock of how I did in 2017.

Resolution 1: Retire. That was achieved and made 2017 a momentous year for me. It impacted – mainly favourably – my ability to achieve the other resolutions I made a year ago.

Resolution 2: Increase My No-Alcohol Days from 2016 (124 days). I failed on this by 8 days. It is noticeable that the number declined after retirement in July. I used to drink almost exclusively at weekends and, now every day feels like a weekend….. well, it’s harder to maintain discipline.

Resolution 3: Get Below 11 Stone. In practice this meant losing about 10 pounds; I failed. I got close in mid-December but failing on Resolution 2 and overeating during the festive period put paid to success. I feel retirement has allowed more control over what I eat and I am helped by LSW also managing her weight proactively. I can achieve this target in 2018.

Resolution 4: Average 13,500 Steps/Day. This fairly aggressive increase on previous years – as measured on my iPhone – was achieved easily due to my new pattern of daily living post-retirement. My daily average for 2017 was 14,200.

Resolution 5: Read the Daily Newspaper Thoroughly. This was in response to my feeling that my attention span was becoming shorter. I think this had been the result of increasing reliance on the Internet as a way of receiving and digesting news. I felt I was missing out on depth of analysis. Retirement has given me the time to achieve this resolution – although it’s hard to measure the success and impact on my understanding of current affairs.

Resolution 6: Keep Going to Gigs and Cinema. This has been partially achieved in that I have been to lots of gigs before and after retirement. Several recent local ones have been excellent. However, local availability of the sort of cinema I like is very limited now I have retired to the country. I am retreating to boxed sets on catch-up TV and that’s fine for now.

Resolution 7: Read 16 books. Retirement has really helped here and I achieved this with 3 weeks to spare. My most enjoyed book this year was Under Major Domo Minor by Patrick De Witt.

Resolution 8: Buy LSW Flowers Occasionally. This was achieved, although ‘occasionally’ is the operative word here. I promise to do better Dear!

Christmas – A Time To Make New Friends

Time to get busy setting resolutions for 2018….. Have a Very Happy New Year!

The Quickening Pace Toward Christmas

December 21, 2017December 31, 2017 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

In my working life there were, of course, deadlines every week, every day and, often, very hour. I have grown used to not facing them since retiring. Now, the days tend to drift by guided by to do lists with ambiguous or undetermined timelines and I can do what I want, when I want. That’s great. However, the last couple of weeks have seen a quickening of life’s pace, a variety of social events and a few deadlines that have shaken my reverie.

The main imperative has been to complete painting of the window alcoves in the upgraded TV room before arrival of the plumber to install new radiators. My inexperience in decoration led me to be surprised by the need for four coats of paint, day long drying times in between each and sanding down after each intermediate coat; that all created a lead time that left me feeling under significant time pressure. However, I managed to meet the deadline.

This early success (another 90% of the room remains to be decorated!) was despite a brief trip to London to enjoy a catch up with old friends from our time in Kew nearly 20 years ago. We enjoyed a delightful evening party with and then a lovely bagel-based breakfast in two different couples’ houses. Where we stayed overnight was almost directly opposite where we lived for several years.

An even longer standing friend, dating back to LSW’s and my first months in London 40 years ago, visited us in Gloucestershire. We had a few bottles of wine with her, Youngest Son (YS) and his girlfriend. That was sufficient to make the idea of going to the local village disco seem like a good idea. That turned out to be excellent with music expertly sampled from the last 40 years and daft dancing fuelled by inexpensive but powerful cocktails. We had such a laugh! My challenge with the decorating was more than matched by the challenge LSW faced in having to get up at 5am next morning to take YS and girlfriend to the railway station – ouch!

Other events this week have included celebration of the re-opening of the main road between our village of Horsley and the local town of Nailsworth. The closure has been for over 4 months and has been an economic blow for the local pub, The Hog. We had a few drinks there to mark the road re-opening and the end of the ‘rat run’ congestion in the lane outside our house.

I also saw the new Star Wars film with Eldest Son (ES) and YS. I’ve seen all the Star Wars films but I struggle to follow the plot that has run back and forth through them. ES and YS tried to educate me by getting me to re-watch the previous film earlier in the day and their guidance helped. The latest addition to the series is well-made and the formula worked again. It was rare fun to have an outing with two sons.

Amid all this hustle and bustle, dancing and decorating, I have managed a few long walks. The weather has been variable as we have approached the year’s shortest day but retirement offers the chance to get out and about whenever it perks up. I’m very lucky to find myself retired in such a lovely part of England and be able to enjoy it.

Mossy Banks and Big Skies near Horsley

Finally, Happy Christmas to you all. Have a great festive period.

Happy Christmas!

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

Christmas