It's been over six months since I last wrote this blog. I felt that people had enough on their plates to be bothered about my wittering so I kept quiet. When I last wrote, our holiday of a lifetime had been postponed yet again. We booked it long before the pandemic was even a twinkle in a Chinese bat's eye and, ever the optimist I tried (unsuccessfully)  to convince Marion that it would go ahead.  She, ever the pessimist, was of course right. But now, things have changed and, maybe, just maybe, we will be going soon. Our flights to St Vincent were cancelled by Virgin who are no lon ..read more

  As I write we should be here on the beautiful island of Bequia for the holiday of a lifetime that we booked in 2019. Instead we will probably be working on the insurance claim of a lifetime over the next few weeks. We've done our best to keep the holiday dream alive but it's been a rollercoaster of ups and downs of shifting dates, arranging quarantine, booking PCR tests and juggling with airline bookings to try and salvage something from the five week trip. But the latest legislation make the risks too great. So, even with vaccinations, two weeks quarantine and self isolation here f ..read more

I don't need to tell anyone what a year it's been.  I just realised that I haven't written a blog since October. So I thought I'd end the year with a summary in photos.   January  Life was good and we were carrying on as usual enjoying trips to London with friends.  Come From Away , the wonderful musical was followed by cocktails and a visit to the Gaugin Exhibition at The National Gallery Mamma Mia The Party At The O2 Was A Fabulous Night Out First treasure find of the year - 18th c Meissen sugar bowl in a box of junk February We were all still ..read more

  It's not exactly a third world problem and I am not looking for any sympathy on this but in February 2019 we booked the holiday of a lifetime for January 2021 (I say holiday of a lifetime as we booked a full four weeks instead of the usual two or three). It was another trip to our favourite Caribbean island Bequia after enjoying three earlier visits to the wonderful Tropical Hideaway. Because the place is so popular it books up well in advance hence our booking almost two years ahead. We paid for our flights as soon as they were available and well before  the lockdown restriction ..read more

  I posted this photo of our friend and neighbour David Howard and his wife Val on this blog  just under two years ago when they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary with a great reception at Framlingham Bowling Club where David was an enthusiastic member. I'm posting it again now in much sadder circumstances after David failed to pull through following open heart surgery in Basildon that was delayed for months due to the Covid-19 crisis. He came to see me on the eve of his trip to hospital and we joked about how the low mortality rate made the operation a risk worth taking ..read more

Everyone has been in the same boat (except Dominic Cummings perhaps) so we are not going to feel sorry for ourselves in having missed our lovely daughter Sarah's 40th birthday. She and Duncan had planned a big family get together in Center Parcs Penrith and we were all looking forward to celebrating a milestone in her life. It would have been one of the rare chances for us to be together with all of our grandchildren but sadly it was not to be. We've re-booked for next year so we can celebrate her 41st. 39 Years passed in the blink of an eye. I've said before that we're pretty cautious and ..read more

So here we are, another seven weeks on from the last blog. Probably the strangest seven weeks of our lives . All I can say is thank goodness for the weather. It might not be exactly what the farmers want but, being reluctant to leave the house, the sunshine has been a godsend. In fact it was so nice that it even tempted Marion back onto her bike after years of hesitancy following a nasty meeting with a pothole on a steep hill.  She did well and we managed a very pleasant ride of about six miles. We booked a decorator to paint the outside of the house last summer but he had a mishap w ..read more

And what have we done? An old world just over And a new one just begun It's two months since I last blogged. That's the longest I've gone in the many years since I started blogging at Instanta and carried on into retirement with this blog. So did you miss much? No really. I suppose that I would have been doing the usual telling you about our cinema and theatre visits, our trips up to the family in Scotland and down to the family in Kent, metal detecting maybe and perhaps some special eBay treasures. Before the pandemic set in we managed a final cinema trip. Emma was just perfect in m ..read more

It's just over two weeks since I last blogged and what an entertaining two weeks it has been. It's Oscar season so the cinemas have been full of the most amazing films of the year before we return to the usual fare of mediocre superhero movies and action packed dross. I know that all the Oscar nominees will reach the small screen in due course but there is nothing like watching films in the way that they were intended so we've managed to cram five films in (and two plays at The National) in the fortnight since I last wrote.  Before getting to the films I must give  a shout out to The Sta ..read more

This time last year we were relaxing in sunny Bequia but we've given the Caribbean a rest this winter after all the involvement in Sarah and Duncan's wedding and are wintering at home in Suffolk. It's hardly been a winter so far with just a couple of freezing mornings to date but so many wet and windy days have left the county waterlogged with fields turned into lakes and roads into streams. I'm pleased to say that the rains seem to be subsiding now but there's no sign of constant dry weather.  Those fields have resembled the mud and mire of 1917 which we went to see at the huge IMAX scr ..read more