Saturday 17th October 2026

It am the weekend. Again.

And I could lay in to six as the gym opens an hour later.

But my brain had me awake soon after five, so I do get up, and after coffee, we had time to go to Tesco again first, then to the gym for phys.

Which is what we do.

Tesco is pretty empty of customers, but lots of folks filling up shelves. So, we dash round getting stuff for the week, though I will be away for four days, so Jools gets stuff easy to cook.

And at the end, a bill of less than sixty quid!

We drive the four hundred yards to the sports centre, then go to wait the five minutes before the doors are opened, and we restless can sweep in, up the stairs onto our machines of torture.

I do fifty minutes again, so with the two loops round Tesco came to nearly 9,000 steps. Before breakfast.

Back home, and pack away, while we boil the kettle at the same time, so we can slump into our chairs for a relaxing brew.

I have a shower, and when done, the bright low sunshine pours in through the window, casting crepuscular rays in the steam.

I take a shot.

Get dressed, then downstairs to listen to the last of Radcliffe and Maconie, before switching to Huey on Virgin Radio. Five hours of cool music passes, and for the last two hours I watch Watford v Charlton, which the home team wins 2-0.

Then to the main batch of games, watching Final Score on the telly whilst listening to Radio 5 on the phone.

Norwich lost for the 6th game in a row, 1-0 to a poor Pompy, while Ipswich nearly cause an upset at Cheaters FC, losing 3-2 to Citeh.

Between games we have burgers for our main meal, then some Polish saltsticks as I watched Villa beat the Toon, in a fairly entertaining game.

And the day had passed.

Friday 16th October 2026

It's nearly the weekend again.

An attempt to lay in was foiled by my brain, waking me up just after five.

I tried to lay in bed and drop back off, but a cute black and white kitten jumped on the bed, so I got up so not to be pinned there for the day.

It was going to be a fine, late autumn day. Cool to start, but warming up quickly, and warm enough to sit on the patio.

Which I did.

As usual, Jools went to yoga, and I did the bins, then finished my coffee, and checked on the world.

Not much to report for the morning. Jools returned, had breakfast and was off an hour later to taxi her bevvy of ladies to the library, all the more difficult with the gas board digging up Kingsdown Road.

After lunch, Jen came round so we could find a way to upload pictures from her old phone onto her new on.

Was more difficult that it should have been, but buried in a sub-menu, there was a box to tick, then when connected to my laptop, I could import the 290 shots of her friends in that Australia from her last two trips.

She stayed for dinner. I made pasta bolognaise and garlic bread, as well as opening a bottle of XV.

Cheers.

I thought I had done well in the music quiz, but got the answer wrong to make it nul points in three quizzes, but taking part is the fun.

Some Championship footy in the evening, but I give up at half time and head to bed.

Thursday 15th October 2026

It's Thursday again, which means getting up at five for some phys.

Although this would be my last 5AM alarm call for phys for some 12 days, as I'm away next week snapping at churches.

I was awake anyway before the alarm went off, so I got dressed, went down to test and jab Scully, then feed her and the other three before putting the kettle on for my only coffee of the day.

I like coffee, but as its the only drink I have with sugar, I limited my intake to just one cup a day, and if I drink another during the day, then I can't sleep.

Anyway.

It's very dark when we get up, and dark still when we drive to the sports centre, where the car park is half full already.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jelltecks/55593009163/in/dateposted/ We do our fifty minutes, by which time it is getting light, so I take a shot outside of the contrast between the lights of the centre and blue light of the sky.

Not much to report for the day. A shower and change of clothes, then go to see Jen as it's the 9th anniversary of Tony's passing.

It hardly seems possible, but it was.

Tony passed when Mum was recovering from her second series of heart attacks, Tony had no such warnings, and yet Mum didn't change, and the third series of attacks did for her.

She had 23 months left.

And maybe she could have changed and lived longer. But she hadn't changed in the 19 years since I moved back to Norfolk, so was an hour away from home, as each year she moved less and less.

Anyway, it is what it is, and what it was.

Jen is fine, time heals, and is overjoyed to see us, doubly so when I offer to make a cuppa.

Back home then at eleven, where we do our hobbies: Jools is doing a beading course next month, so is learning the techniques by watching videos and beading along.

We had lamb steaks for dinner. With the leftover pasta salad, which lasted most of the week. The final dregs went in the bin.

We wash up, listen to music, and so the afternoon passes.

Another day draws to an end, though with no football on TV, or none that I can see. Nor is it on the radio, so we head to bead early, as darkness takes us from this world.

Brexit update

I said a few years back that I would only write about Brxit if there were any new policies, or movement on the issue.

Well, during the Labour conference, Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, called for closer links to the Eu, though what exactly those closer links could be wan't explained. He also repeated this in the House of Commons.

Last week, in a TV interview he revealled he had been told that there was Russian interferance on the Brexit Referendum, this again he repated in the HoC earlier this week.

There will be "reset" talks in November, however, these have been much postponed and delyed since July, so how much store we should put into this is unclear.

What it has done is started the national discussion regarding Brexit, whether it has been a success or failur, and the consequences of that vote.

As I have also said previously, this is the discussion we should have had before the vote, but here we are.

Lead Brexit negotiator un Boris Johnson was David Frost, and he said that if we were still talking about Brexit after five years, then t would have failed.

So, by his words, Brexit has failed.

And yet the ills of the country and economy are still being blamed on migrants. Robert Jenrick this week called for lethal force to be used on those crossing the Channel.

If such an order were given to UK Forces by a Farage Government, this would be an illegal order, and should be refused. That Farage had rowed back from that is at least something.

For the economy, lower than expected numbers of people coming to live and work in the UK means there is a £7billion hole on the Chancellors finances. I mean, who'd have thought that would be the consequences?

For now, Reform vote share has been falling, and more by-elections and local elections have failed to elect candidates from his party. And in elections, voters seem to vote for whoever will defeat those candidates from his party. Of course, whether this will be carried out in a general election is unknown, but with his popularity stalling at the polls, the media still talk to people from Reform with a handful of MPs, rather than say the Lib Dems of Greens who have many more times the MPs in Westminster.

Currently 57% of people think it was wrong to leave the EU, while 30% still think it was a good idea.

So, let's see what November brings in those talks with the EU.

Wednesday 14th October 2026

It is nearly the middle of October, and yet the spirit of summer lingers on.

When days have clear skies, temperatures climb into the late teens or early twenties, warm enough to sit on the patio with cats but sans jumper or coat.

Most trees have yet to done the colours of autumn, and are still mostly green. And when the sun sines, insects like Hummingbird hawkmoths can be seen, zipping around, though their time is drawing near.

Days now begin sometime after seven, and end shortly after six once the sun has set. But the warmth will have left the day before then. Mostly.

On Wednesday, we were both up and about well before six, though Jools up first. The cats were tested and fed, coffee made, and after an hour spent online, Jools went for her class, and I was left home to make a fresh brew, have breakfast and tidy up.

When she returned just after ten, and another heartening brew made and consumed, Jools asked if we should go for a walk.

I didn't really feel like it, but had the idea of scattering verbascum seeds around the neighbourhood, so that in 18 months time, grand, yellow-flowered spikes would reach for the sky. And people would wonder where they came from.

Thing is, bare soil is hard to come by, but I do my best, scattering and stomping them into the earth.

We don't go far, up Station Road, then along the first track past the war memorial, before cutting back to Hardy and out along the lower track, before heading up to Colling wood and home.

Not much seen on the wing or in flower, but an hour wandering, scattering, and stomping was good.

Clear blue skies above, and hedges filled with autumnal fruit, at least those the farmer had so far failed to flail.

Back home we have a fresh brew, sit outside before thoughts turn to lunch and the long afternoon of the soul.

By three the day had cooled so that the door and windows were closed, and the heating turned up a notch, just in case.

For the evening there was Norwich on the telly, and Citeh on the radio. I wanted to listen to the Villa game, but it wasn't on the BBC, so Citeh it was, and were soon 2-0 down to an equally financially suspect PSG after just fifteen minutes.

It was 3-0 before half time, and Norwich did OK, until the second half were poor defending let Southampton in to score the only goal. It was an improvement, just. though five defeats in a row, and only a point above the drop zone.

Citeh lost 4-2, after improving after the break, but still, got to laugh.

Tuesday 13th October 2026

Tuesday, and phys comes round once again. Which means being up at five, and mucking in, we can do all our tasks before I leave for the gym at ten to six. It was still dark when I left, and the sports centre was getting pretty busy. But I found a place to park, and begin to listen to the latest Word podcast, which would see me through from leaving the car until I get back, including the fifty minutes cycling between.

The gym was pretty quiet, the pool busy, as usual.

By the time I was done, dawn had broken, but caused mist to rise, so the scene outside was blurry, as it was getting light.

Bad on the A2, but once I got back home the mist had cleared, and I was home safe and sound.

Which was nice.

Jools was off to the Riverside for the first of her classes. She made me a brew, so I could sit outside to cool down and drink the tea while sitting beside Scully.

Then a shave and shower, so that by ten, I was al clean and lovely.

It was time for my regular blood test and blood pressure check, so as soon as Jools came back at half ten, I was out in the car, to run chores at the vets, then into town to buy more allergy medicine.

I walked along the Dour from ASDA to the Town Hall, which was very pleasant in the now warm sunshine. At the bowls club, the grass was being cut, possibly for a new season.

And ten back to the surgery, getting back with ten minutes before my appointment. Maybe it was the 10,000 steps already done that morning, that my blood pressure was elevated, but other than that, I felt on top of the world.

So with words of thanks I left the surgery, walked back to the car and then back home.

Phew.

And so back home in time for lunch, and sitting in the garden to watch the birds on the feeders, squawking at each other in the way sparrows do.

Not much else to report, just the day chills again as the sun sinks low in the west, so dinner is prepared and cooked. I say prepare. I open the box and put the pizza in the oven.

So it goes.

For the evening there was Championship football on the tellybox, and Champion's League on the TV, with the sound turned down.

Monday 12th October 2026

The weeks fly by.

Its Monday again, but what does that mean anyway?

Needless to say, I was awake at twenty past five. I lay in for a few minutes, then am up.

When I back into the bedroom to get dressed, Cleo was there, deciding after months of not sleeping there, that this is now the place. So, making the bed would have to wait for later.

A day in which little happened. Jools went on a tip run and got a few things from Tesco and Lidl. I did whatever it was I was doing, maybe it was choosing a book to read, then sit on the top patio once the sun warmed up, and after ten, it was like summer again.

Lovely.

The birds are filling the hedge near the feeders, and hours can be spent watching them, or listening to their arguments.

The sun shone down from its low arc, soon very warm indeed.

The morning passed.

Lunch came, and we had our main meal, and all tidied up for a relaxing afternoon.

I do another search of the lawnmeadow for orchid rosettes, and find one of a Pyramidal, quite advanced, something I must have missed at the end of last week. So, we should have orchids next year, as long as there's not another drought.

Come three in the afternoon, and the sun sinks behind the hedge, and a chill builds, so sends me inside and to the thermostat to turn the heating on, even if its not really going to be that cold, even in the wee small hours.

Pastrami rolls with pickles and mustard for supper, and no booze for me as I have a blood test in the morning.

For the evening there was football, of course. Coventry v Newcastle, which was a good game, but I was tired, and decide to go to bed with 15 minutes to go, thus missing a goal from the Toon and two more from Cov, so ends 4-1.