Monday 25th November 2025

It is Monday morning again, and in theory, I have a lay in.

No one tells either my brain or bladder about the lay in, and I am awake at ten to five.

I lay in bed for forty minutes, then get up and get dressed and am on the move.

With Jen in Florida, there is no cards, and being a rest day there is no phys.

Just the whole day in which to relax in and enjoy.

This was also the first anniversary of me, formally, informing my employer of my intention to retire in March 2025.

I have been re-reading my blogs to find out when that was. Then there was a two week wait while our advisor crunched the numbers and came back to us with the answer: Yes, you can afford to retire.

I finish the book on bad maps by the Map Men, then sit in the garden for half an hour to watch the birds on the feeder.

We had planned nothing as the weather said there was a 90% chance of rain every hour into the afternoon.

But again, no one told Mother Nature and it was sunny if very cold in the NE wind.

I went into the garden with the phone and found a second Pyramidal rosette right next to the first, and having spotted blackbirds and thrushes down the bottom of the garden, I found the cotoneaster and Virginia Creeper both stripped of berries.

We had soup and stale bread for lunch. It was filling.

Not much else to tell, really.

Fritters for dinner.

Wash up.

Have a coffee.

Watch Man Utd v Everton, which was very funny.

Everton had a player sent off for slapping his own captain. Then Everton scored, and Man Utd couldn't break the ten men down over 77 minutes plus injury time.

Oh how we laughed.