Weeks are hurtling by these days, so three weekly updates in one. Despite my best efforts to slow life down, I am not succeeding but I have nobody to blame except myself. As usual, I am wanting to do too much. Here’s a little round up of some of the things I’ve been up to.
Two trips into London
Seeing as how it’s about a year since I rattled around in London, I decided to go again, especially as I enjoy the delights of my senior citizen’s railcard and the discount it brings. Not just once, but twice.
First time was to see the annual Taylor Wessing Portrait Photography exhibition which just seems to get better each year, or at least I reckon the judges are leaning more in my direction. I have been to a number of these exhibitions over the years but I do admit to being somewhat thrown this year by the temporary change in location. No big deal as it allowed me to happily wander through relatively quiet London streets, passing from Trafalgar Square, along The Mall, Hyde Park and through Knightsbridge to the temporary home, while some building works take place. Naturally I had a whizz around the National Gallery first amongst the jaw-dropping priceless master pieces.
With the Taylor Wessing exhibition, I love the snapshot of life. Amongst the drag queens, the refugees and the simply very ordinary people, they are all captured by a variety of photographers – amateurs and professionals alike – and this is where you find such an impressive body of work.
It is quite moving when you stand there and gaze into the lives portrayed in the exhibition of just over 50 prints. I love getting transported in my mind into their lives with my imagination running away with itself. I almost find myself wanting to talk with the subjects there in their photographs but then, a split second later, I remind myself you can’t talk to a photo other than to admire the work itself.
My next trip was with my mother, a Londoner at heart.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go to London again” she said, somewhat mournfully.
“Why not?” I replied in my annoyingly optimistic most hopeful voice “after all we can go tomorrow”
“No, it’s too much for you Doug, all this running around you do. No, I don’t need to go. Besides, how would we get there?”
“It’s no problem Mum” as I volunteered Rachel to drive us to the little station in the next village. Mum was cornered, I had called her bluff. She was being forced to avoid the regretful attitude of doing things “for the last time”, which I always feel so hard to grapple with in my mind.
And so we went. St Pancras Station, giving a nod to Sir John Betjemin’s statue and his efforts to save the splendid Victorian station before rumbling down the Northern line where I always wonder if my friend Tony might be the train driver. We said “hello” to the River Thames and wandered up Whitehall and had lunch in The Chandos, as we have often done before.
A simple trip but my mum loved it and it was worth every penny to see her delight with “old London Town” as she puts it.
Two trips to Exeter
Our eldest daughter, with her hubby, have bought themselves a new house and we have been down to help with some DIY repairs and, on the second visit, to help them move in. Turns out, as is often the case, things can be worse than they might seem with such things. That plaster is rather fragile and oh, surprise surprise, the previous owner never bothered to have a radiator put into the lounge. The list goes on.
Brushing all that aside is the thought of this being a dream come true. Seeing my daughter nicely settling down in the house they actually intend to stay in for the foreseeable future is nice. All this is just as well with our first grandchild arriving at Christmas! Our other daughter, although in a different situation altogether, continues to work hard further along the south coast.
Spooked
We have all been spooked by the woeful Miss Trust and her attempts to make a name for herself as the Prime Minister who rescues the shaky economy. Just as worrying are the Conservative Party members who selfishly voted for her, hoping to cash-in on the benefits she promised – lower taxes for the very rich and so on. We all know that backfired with the markets being spooked. Perhaps things have stabilised now with the (possibly) level-headed Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor and the smooth operator Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister. Things is, they’re Conservatives and I’m still not sure I can trust them (think Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson and all those to-do’s)
I find myself thinking of how best to manage our little slice of the huge economic challenges the UK faces. We have inflation running away at 11% (and counting) and energy bills have effectively doubled in the last year; something of a sobering thought as I do like to keep warm here in the Quirky Museum.
Perhaps a blog post for another time. Our little nest egg of investments probably ought to stay put, to ride things out as we have no need to cash anything in. If we did, it could hurt as the markets are not being brilliantly kind these days. Besides, that’s all a part of the long term plan and there’s no need to doubt it is still sound.
Like most other people, we keep a sensible cash reserve which can be easily accessed by both of us. Although we might feel chuffed at achieving the heady heights of 2.5% interest these days, we are still seeing it lose a lot of spending power because of the runaway inflation.
Thinking caps on please.
New running shoes!
Having been somewhat miffed with life expectancy issue, I have decided to ignore my painful foot and get back to running.
The positive element is that my fitness is returning quite quickly; a 5 minute run, followed by a 10, 15 and 20 minute run etc. The less positive part is with my foot still being quite painful, so it might be back to the physiotherapist.
Onwards and upwards!